Naruto of the Crimson Sword
by Dylan Millwood
Summary: Because he was at a wrong place at a wrong time - at the Uchiha compound during massacre - Naruto gets thrown into a new world by Itachi's use of the Kamui jutsu. The seven-year-old blond now finds himself in a strange world, filled with demons and half-demon girls who fight them. Alone and having no idea about anything, he struggles to either find a place to belong or return home
1. Chapter 1

It was almost night time when Naruto left Ichiraku's. He had been suspended from the academy, though the reason being "not training monsters" had made him as angry as he was confused.

To occupy his time while he had to deal with getting Naruto's suspension lifted, Naruto had been given a copy of a book called "Tanto Hosen-the way of the short sword" by the Old Man, and he was studying it. Of course there WAS that bandage-head guy who offered to train Naruto himself, but Old Man Third wouldn't have it for some reason.

But as for that book he'd been given, while Naruto admittedly wasn't normally one for books, that Tanto Hosen was an exception.

It was about how to do a form of kenjutsu perfected in some place called "China" with the tachi. In the ancient days from the 13th to the 16th century pirates roamed the sea of Japan eventually crossing it and appearing on the shores of china the Ming called them wako (Japanese for invaders) and fought back. However the Ming army was hard pressed by the massive power of the Japanese sword in close combat. Tei Soyu a general who was a shaolin monk focused on researching these swords and their kenjutsu. He collected the knowledge into a book called Tanto Hosen- the way of the short sword, (the same one Naruto was studying) and circulated it through the Chinese army. Another general, Seki Keiko, was the first to equip his units with Japanese swords in the later years of Ming Japanese swords became the official equipment of the army leading not only to the importing but also production of the swords on their own. Released from the confines of Japan, china produced a new Japanese sword called the Wato and a new Chinese kenjutsu to command it, Watojutsu. A creation of kenjutsu that fused the speed and power of the katana and the power and grace of Chinese martial arts.

The only problem with the style was that it was entirely based around offense and power, heedless of defense; never attempting to block, but rather counterattacking opponents to utilize offense.

Of course Naruto hadn't actually practiced the moves in the book, he lacked a sword to do so. Sure he could've used a broom handle or something, but if they broke, he'd never get a new one since the shops never allowed him in. He needed something sturdier than that if he wanted to actually practice.

After enjoying his ramen, Naruto decided to go for a walk... despite the meal, Naruto was feeling... edgy. He had a need, an URGE, to do something.

Suddenly, Naruto stopped as he came to a realization. Since it was a few days since his suspension, he had not stepped foot into the Academy. No Academy meant no cold stares or teachers who wouldn't teach him. That meant...no pranks! He hadn't pranked anyone in two whole days!

To the young boy, the pranking situation needed to be remedied. All he needed was a victim...

Fate...Destiny...one could call the chance meeting any of these, but as Naruto turned a corner, he noticed an excited looking Uchiha boy running by. He didn't know the boy at all, but he DID recognize the telltale features that most male Uchihas shared... the dark hair, pale complexion and the pansy effeminate look that made it easy to underestimate them at times. The same features as the policemen who would give him a hard time. The same features that was shared by the killer and his victim that he saw a few days ago.

Had anyone been paying attention to Naruto, they might have noticed a rather manic looking grin on his face as he found his victim of the day. "Perfect."

Locked on target, Naruto trailed after his victim-to-be.

Naruto followed after the Uchiha boy closely, making sure not to be seen by anyone. It would be difficult to explain what he was doing following after an Uchiha... that, and if caught he might lose sight of his target. From the way he was running, Naruto could only guess that the boy was running home. Perhaps a bit of simple vandalism on the boy's house? Get the police station on his way out for laughs?

...Maybe itching powder on their uniforms...THAT was always good for grins. Sure it was small time...but then, not many people could get away with pranking the police.

Noticing kid stop at the entrance of the Uchiha sector, Naruto carefully made his way closer to the boy. Oddly enough, the area around the entrance was empty, even for this time of night... No lights shone from nearby buildings, despite the fact that it was around this time most people enjoyed dinner. There weren't even any of the police making patrols along the streets or near the rooftops for some reason. Perhaps someone was dumb enough to steal something? Snickering, Naruto though the place was 'as quiet as a graveyard'. And as the kid ran further into the sector, Naruto made to follow...the light bit of humor failing to keep the hairs on the back of his neck from rising.

After the boy turned a corner, he stopped again, apparently in shock. From where he hid, Naruto could see a manic look of fear in his eyes that worried Naruto further. What the hell was going on? Seeing the boy take off faster, Naruto moved to follow...only to notice the large amount of damage that was done to the surrounding area. Street signs and lanterns were sliced in half, while shuriken and other throwing weapons embedded themselves into various surfaces. Despite the lack of bodies, Naruto easily picked up a familiar metallic scent...one that he had became all too familiar with whenever some of the villagers got drunk and went after him to "purge Konoha of it's demonic taint".

Blood.

There were no signs of any bodies, or any telltale signs that he could see at first...but he could make out the scent easily. Shaking his head, Naruto made his way past the battle zone on his quest to keep the Uchiha boy in sight. This wasn't funny anymore.

Another length of street and another corner brought an even more gruesome scene than the battlefield before. Naruto noticed the boy pause briefly before bolting, but Naruto himself stopped at the scene to take in what the battlefield behind him lacked.

Bodies.

There were only two...most likely the only two in the area who were not in their homes at the time aside from the Police... or at least... the only two left outside. A dark part of Naruto's mind noticed that both were killed professionally... the areas cut on the dead bodies were cut with precision... no more than necessary and sliced in just the right areas for a quick, if bloody, death, one of the anatomy books he read instantly coming to mind.

Of course... the scene brought something else to mind... that day he witnessed the man called Shisui die by the river that day he decided to pull out of the Academy. Shaking his head to purge the thought before it came fully, Naruto glanced around... barely missing the boy run into one of the bigger houses. Suddenly, Naruto's earlier thought came back to him as he made to follow...

The place really was as quiet as a graveyard... as silent as only death itself could be.

Morbid thoughts aside, Naruto decided the best course of action would be to sneak around the house instead of blindly following inside. If whoever did this was outside, he wanted a chance to escape out in the open, where he could possibly use anything in the surrounding area to get away. If it worked for escaping the police and the occasional ninja, he had high hopes for being able to escape whatever did this. If the killer was inside... well... that's why there were windows. Worse comes to worse, he could run off to the Hokage and describe what the killer looked like.

Naruto did his best to keep out of sight... glancing around before peeking through what windows he could find, hoping to keep the boy in sight. It was when he passed by one of the last rooms, what appeared to be a master bedroom, that he spotted the man that he knew killed the couple outside... as well as everyone else in the area. The man, dressed like an ANBU but lacking the usual mask, sliced through another couple, spraying their blood along the floor... just as the door to the room opened. Letting out a light gasp, Naruto noticed the ninja turn his way and pulled away from the window... instantly remembering the face of the man whose screams haunted his thoughts even now.

It was the face of the man who killed Shisui by the riverside a few days ago. The face of the man whose eyes cried blood as he screamed in horrible pain for an eternity. Naruto listened as the man talked with the boy... his own little brother. He spoke about his reasons... to measure his capacity. He listened as the little boy, whom the man called 'Sasuke', scream as well, before running out, wailing for his life. He heard the doors fly open and the boy's screaming reach the outside of the house, then swallowed and hesitantly checked inside the room.

Both Sasuke and his brother... Itachi... were gone, leaving only the two bodies on the ground.

"... Sa...su...ke..." wheezed a soft, female voice.

Surprised, Naruto leaped into the room, making his way next to the woman on the ground. The man was dead, his lifeless eyes looking up away towards the wall, his face set in a permanent scowl. The woman, however, was stabbed in the chest... a deadly wound, to be sure, but bleeding heavily. Grabbing the woman's hand, Naruto whimpered, shaking her lightly. "H...Hold on! I'll get help lady!" Naruto cried. Maybe after that guy finished off his little brother, he'll be long gone, right?

"...can't...die...yet... " the woman coughed up blood and her grip on Naruto's hand tightened. Her eyes turned to focus on the boy as tears welled up in her eyes, seeking salvation in the blonde haired boy before her. "... please...I...can't...die yet...curse...hate...have to...warn...Sa...su...ke..."

"I...I'll get help! You won't die lady! I promise! Soon as we get ya to the old man, he'll make you better!" Whimpering, Naruto began to look around frantically before doing his best to lift the woman up by the shoulders. Placing one of her arms around his neck, he leaned her against him as best as he could before dragging her out. "Uzumaki Naruto never breaks his word! Just don't die yet lady!"

"...Uzu...maki...Na...ru...to..." Naruto felt the woman clench his hand firmly once more as she gave him a relieved smile...before closing her eyes for the last time, her grip on his hand going slack.

Panic suddenly filled Naruto as he quickly dragged the woman with him outside. "C'mon lady...you're just sleeping right? I told ya, Uzumaki Naruto doesn't lie! Don't die, lady! Just wait, Old Man will fix you up!" Looking around, Naruto started to cry out. If this lady was alive, maybe someone else was, right? One guy couldn't kill EVERYONE! "HELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE! HEEEELP!"

"What are you doing with my mother's corpse?" asked a cold voice that froze Naruto where he stood. Whimpering, the blonde haired boy turned around... and looked right at a young man with blood-colored eyes, and jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail which extended to his shoulder blades. He was dressed like those masked ninjas that were around the village sometimes.

"G...gotta save her..." he whimpered, his legs shaking so much it took everything he could to keep standing.

"You cannot save the dead...but if you wish, you can see just how I made her that way... perhaps this will teach you not to meddle in affairs that do not concern you... Uzumaki Naruto-kun." With that spoken, those blood-red eyes changed, and Naruto felt himself falling into darkness. The clouds in the sky seemed to fly in reverse as the sky and moon changed colors... becoming a black moon set in a red sky, dark stars twinkling menacingly for a brief moment before he found himself standing in the same room he had just left. The woman he was saving was no longer in his arms, but kneeling on the ground next to the dead man, who still seemed to scowl. Uchiha Itachi could be seen standing behind the two, katana drawn and a sinister smile seen on his face.

"For the next twenty-four hours...you will watch as I kill my parents... Uchiha Fugaku, my father and Uchiha Mikoto, my mother... over and over again, while being helpless to do anything about it." Naruto whimpered as he watched Itachi raise his blade... only to stop as Naruto let out a loud cry, his body moving as he rushed towards the killer. Smirking, Itachi brought his blade down, slicing through his father's chest, before stabbing his mother sharply. As the blood sprayed and their bodies fell, Naruto watched helplessly as he found himself standing by the door again, the bodies no long on the ground, but once again kneeling before Itachi. Five more times he watched it happen, each time never making it in time to save the woman or her husband. After the last time, Naruto shuddered in anger when Itachi's voice rang out through the polarized world. " Twenty-three hours fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds..."

After two more seconds of this, something in Naruto broke. He couldn't stand to see his promise broken by this murderer! Cold, dark and primal anger filled Naruto as he began to see red...

Naruto soon found himself back in the real world, a look of shock and fear on Itachi's face confusing him, but he didn't care. He was angry, so angry everything he saw was tinted red and he felt like he was on fire from the inside out.

"**I'LL RIP YOU APART!**"

The enraged scream echoed through the night around the corpse-littered compound. Accompanying the voice a surge of chakra could be felt by all in the village of Konohagakure no Sato, along with so much killing intent that the weaker individuals had fallen to their knees shaking and quivering in fear.

Itachi watched as steam seemed to pour out and encircle the blond. Following this, chakra as red as blood and hot as flames burst out from the boy blowing the steam away and taking its place surrounding him before shooting into the air forming a spiral. Itachi recoiled as the chakra seemed to form the head of a grinning kitsune. One that's eyes widened and then narrowed maliciously at the sight of him. Then the kitsune's head seemed to pour itself over Naruto like liquid and formed into a somewhat solidified, bubbling red fox form as two tails emerged. He now sported what looked like claws on both his hands and feet. His canine's had also lengthened and turned into fangs while his whisker-marks grew more pronounced, widening and darkening until they resembled abysmal scars. His eyes had been the greatest change as his once soulful blue eyes had changed becoming blood red with an animalistic black slit for the pupil.

Itachi winced at the situation.

"How ironic...the one most entitled to wishing doom upon the Uchiha is trying to save one of them." Itachi muttered. This wasn't good. Of all people to deal with, it just HAD to be Minato and Kushina's child. Now the one being who loathed the Uchiha more than any other was going to use the young boy as a medium to rip him to pieces just for being alive. Damn his depraved ancestor! Cursed Madara! If the man had been so powerful, Itachi wanted to know _WHY_ he had to brainwash the Kyuubi and have it fight his battles for him like some damned attack dog! Now HE was going to die before he planned on...and all because of that old madman! Sasuke was the one who was supposed to kill him!

**"An Uchiha...Heh, I'm gonna enjoy this!" **a different, rough, gravelly, deep voice said from the child's mouth as he shrugged off Mikoto's cadaver as though simply tossing out a sack of garbage.

Itachi paled. The Nine-Tails...ho, this was just perfect!

The possessed boy suddenly winced for a second and then started muttered to himself.

**"Fine brat...You steer, I'll shoot...this works out for me since you only want to hurt this guy. Getting to rip apart someone of **Ōtsutsuki **Indra's side of the ********bloodline. Always liked his younger brother Ashura better anyways!"**

With that, Itachi made one mistake: he blinked. by the time he had done so than the jinchūriki was on top of him, arm swinging in at overhead strike that would shatter his collar bone if it handed.

Itachi dodged, but a blast of sheer kinetic energy tossed him backwards and through a wall, bringing it down on top of him. Itachi pulled himself out of the rubble and leaned against the wall that had

_'The pressure with just the shockwave...! And all from simply moving his hand...! So...this is only HALF the power of the ninth bijū!' _

**"I'm surprised you could dodge that. Not bad...but not good, either. Almost got you."** the fox said with a cackle.

That caused Itachi to look down and his eyes widened, there were claw marks on his flak jacket. He looked up and gulped. Even near-misses were dangerous. With that kind of power, Itachi couldn't block OR dodge...and he needed to conserve as much of what was left of his chakra as possible. He wasn't fully used to the techniques of the Mangekyō Sharingan, and he'd already used Tsukuyomi twice. But he _HAD_ to get Naruto away from here.

Using the power of the Kyuubi and being found in a place littered with the dead...there was no way he wouldn't be blamed for the massacre of the Uchiha Clan.

Itachi had no choice.

_'Kamui!'_ the Uchiha thought desperately.

**"Wha..?! NO! DAMN YOU, NO! I WILL NOT BE DENIED KILLING YOU, UCHIHA! DAMN YOU AND YOUR BLOOD! DAMN THAT CURSED SHARINGAN!" **the fox howled, realizing what was going on as soon as it saw the air around his host ripple and swirl inwards towards him.

"My bloodline and I are already damned, you more than anyone already know that," Itachi said, "now be gone forever, and may Madara's demented goals of the restoration of the Jūbi no Shinju vanish along with you!"

**"**_**WHAT?!**_ **JUST WHOSE SIDE ARE YO..."**

The question was left unfinished as the stunned bijū was swallowed by the Jikūkan Ninjutsu, taking Naruto along with it.

Itachi sighed, ho...explaining this to the Sandaime Hokage was going to be an absolute pain in the ass. If only Danzo hadn't ruined the plan of having Shisui use his Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku to subtly end the Uchiha's coup d'état plan because the warmonger, believing that simply manipulating the Uchiha's leader wouldn't end the conflict, chose to take Shisui's eyes for himself and had succeeded in getting the right one!

...Ah well, at least now the Hokage could finally DO something about the de facto leader of "Negakure no Sato", or the "Village Hidden in the Roots"... it was a joke made to mock Danzo and his faction by calling them that before the group was deemed illegal and disbanded (although, Itachi knew they were still unofficially active and operating illegally), and it actually made more sense to call them that since they always acted as though they were a separate village from Konoha anyway, with the way this had turned out.

But, damnit, Itachi wished more than anything that things had gone differently! _'Please forgive me fourth Hokage...'_

* * *

"Alana!"

A winged-Yoma swooped down from the sky, and in a gout of blood tackled one of the guards, snarling as it rode him to the ground smashing him face first into the ground.

"No. No. No…!"Another guard's screams were cut short as the shoulders of the heavily muscled Yoma surged, tearing him in half.

"Alana, it's okay!"

A fleeing guard gasped and gurgled as the spear- like fingers of the largest Yoma dragged him slowly back.

"Alana," her dad whispered, cradling her against his chest in an attempt to shield her from the monstrosity. "Are you —are you all right?"

"Yes," Alana murmured weakly, stomach churning, unable to look away from the guards face turned toward her, with its dulled eyes and lipless mouth giving her a death grin. Failing to hold the sightless gaze of the dead man she closed her eyes, swallowing thickly trying to force the bile to stay down. In a way closing her eyes only made what was happening worse was that over the noise of her racing heart and her father's heavy breathing, she could hear the Yoma feeding.

The noises were strange, taunting her to look yet again to see what exactly those monsters were doing to the formerly living men. It had all gone so horribly, horribly wrong and she didn't want to see or know, but still she found her eyes opening once more. At first all she could see were those horribly dead eyes, but against her will, her attention shifted up; towards the largest Yoma hovering over the guard licking the blood on its long and horrible fingers like it was gravy.

Her throat burned as she lost her fight against the bile in her throat, but her father didn't seem to notice. The soft murmuring told her wasn't even paying attention to the world; he was focused on something else. Shakily, she awkwardly turned her gaze up toward him, unsurprised to find his eyes closed and mouth moving faintly in the rote litany of a prayer.

"Why do they always pray?" The shortest and most muscular of the three Yoma asked as it suddenly came into view grabbing her father's hair, while seizing her own arm and yanking them apart. Dropping her without looking, it tossed her father to the ground a few feet away. "It never helps and it's annoying."

The impact had temporarily knocked the air out of her father, but he refused to stop. Clutching his hands tighter together he continued to pray, "...Through the mighty strength of the Trinity, we ask for a mighty downpour from Heaven, may you hear the voices of your sons and daughters. Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation and deliver us from this evil-"

"Maybe it does help?" The Winged Yoma taunted, turning its attention away from the still-warm intestines of the gutted torso it had been feeding on.

"Does it really work?" The Short Yoma questioned, lacings its fingers together in a mockery of a prayer before laughing and grabbing her father's face "Save your breath for the screams, your god doesn't exist, or they just don't give a damn about you! And just for annoying me I'm going to eat your guts while you're still alive."

"W-why are you doing this?!" Alana shouted, staring at the Yoma who was stalking around her father who refused to stop praying despite its taunts. "WHY!?"

"Because it makes you afraid." The largest Yoma answered, letting the leftovers of the husk he had been feeding on fall to the ground as he moved toward her in a strange loping gait. Crouching before them, the Yoma smiled, revealing its blood-soaked teeth as it cupped her chin with a large, meaty hand "Human guts taste good fresh, but they taste so much better when you're terrified."

Alana gagged at the sick, foul breath that washed over her face as it spoke, trying to flinch away from it. Oh god, please, someone...ANYONE...help them!

"Hey! Why are you two talking like you'll get to eat their guts?" The winged Yoma protested, drawing the other Yoma's attention. "We never agreed on who would get to eat who. It was first-come, first-serve!"

"It was my idea to wait here and ambush a caravan before we went north!" the large Yoma snarled, releasing her chin roughly to glower down at the winged Yoma.

"It was my idea!" the short yoma shouted, stalking away from her still-praying father to confront its companions "I should get to eat whoever I damn well please!"

Alana watched the three-arguing Yoma in a daze of confusion and disbelief, they were arguing on who should be eating them and she was sitting here in her stained clothes watching. A white hot fury welled up within, and when she saw a discarded sword gleaming within reach, she instinctively reached for it-

Alana froze solid, eyes widening in terror as she looked at the small Yoma that had shouted. But its attention was fixed on something else and turning her attention in that direction, she found what had caught its attention. The yoma looked up and froze.

"Huh, what the hell is THAT!?" The winged yoma asked, stunned.

Seeming to fall from the heavens itself was a figure of a young boy, yet he had what seemed to be wings of fire. It looked like six of them, as a matter of fact. The topmost ones were high enough to where they seemed to come from behind his head, the middle ones were extended as far as his arms, and the last set was a little below his waist.

The burning figure landed heavily on the ground, kicking up dirt and dust as their landing shook the ground and caused a crater to form.

"Wha-what the...?!" the three Yoma stampered.

It happened all at once, in both blind speed and seemingly slow motion, all with perfect crystal clarity: the being seemed to disappear with a flicker of red that danced like flames, only to immediately reappear behind the attacking Yoma. The small yoma exploded with a sudden spurt of purple blood from the chest, before toppling to the ground in two halves while the seemingly burning being casually shook his hands to get some of the Yoma's blood off his hands before he directed his attention to the two remaining monsters.

"What the... Who–what are you?" The large yoma shouted, stumbling back from the scene "You're not a Claymore!"

Rather than answer, the person disappearing with another flicker of red. Suddenly the yoma doubled over as the one on fire appeared in front of him, fist buried in its stomach, and then a second later the burning one was somehow in the air over the momentarily helpless Yoma. Impossibly, the boy seemed to hang in mid-air before he extended a single leg over head and dropped to the ground slamming the heel of it into the back of the Yoma's head, driving the Yoma face first into the ground with a ridiculously loud 'crack', creating a crater from the impact.

"Impossible!" The winged Yoma exclaimed before realizing the danger it now faced and launched itself into the air.

The blond craned his neck, eyes tracking the flying Yoma before he vanished in a silent blur. He reappeared high in the air, tearing away the wing of the Yoma. Its remaining wing flapped helplessly against the air before it started to plummet in a spiral descent, aided by the flaming blond kicking it away as they separated.

Twisting around in midair, aura bellowing out to create what looked like wings of red flames, the stranger sent the wing he'd ripped off flying and impaling the Yoma through the throat and it gaged as the bone of it's own wing destroyed it's throat, killing it instantly. An instant later the young man crashed back to the earth and rolled across the ground, before regaining his feet, empty handed but victorious.

Alana stared at him in hushed awe, as if coming face to face with God or the Twin Goddesses. She was unable to completely absorb the significance: he was young, his hair sun-bright yellow, sun-kissed skin. His style of dress was odd, but that wasn't important next to what he had done.

How he seemed to be on fire yet wasn't hurt by it...the six wing-like appendages he'd had...the way he'd dropped from the heavens when her father had been praying for a savior...and the ease, power, and speed he'd gotten rid of the Yoma...

He just _**couldn't** _be merely human.

He had to be a 'Burning One'; one of the fiery angles that were the caretakers of God's throne and the beings closest to it in the Celestial Hierarchy, second only to God himself and one of the ones that were said to have six wings: "with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew" and before whom, none could stand for fear of their righteous flames consuming them.

As unconsciousness claimed her, Alana managed one word "Seraph."

Naruto panted as the redness vanished from his sight, taking the strength he'd had with it and leaving him exhausted. Then noticed it was daytime and that his surroundings. Where was this? It wasn't anywhere in the Uchiha compound...or Konoha at all! Where was this place!? How far was he from home?!

After a few seconds, he noticed he was covered in some kind of dark purple liquid that the monster's bodies gave off, he guessed it was their blood.

He'd done that?

While normally, it would have been awesome, he remembered what had happened at the Uchiha compound. He had to get back and help that Mikoto woman! But WHERE was he?! What direction did he go to find his way back to Konoha?! He had always wanted to in order to get away from how much people hated him, but he'd never left Konoha before...Old Man Sandaime had never let him, saying it was dangerous outside the village for people who weren't ninja.

Judging from the ripped-up monsters, Naruto could see what the old Kage had meant.

Seeing the torn up caravan and that there didn't seem to be anyone alive, the seven-year-old panicked and ran away in a random direction.

* * *

"I don't appreciate emergency calls for sessions this early in the morning," Rimuto announced entering the roughly hewn meeting hall. The others present noticeably stiffened at his voice, but he ignored it as he approached his seat and settled into it. After a moment of silence, he glanced around at the fellow elders and Handlers before noting the disfigured countenance of Dae standing alone before them. "This better be good."

"It is." Dae confirmed his tone in an odd mixture of anticipation and annoyance. "My sources have reported a sudden and dramatic shift in Yoma activity."

"Oh?" Rimuto said, glancing at the others who were looking at each other in mixtures of confusion, and uneasiness.

"There was a massive flare of Yoki detected in the western regions of Mucha," Dae explained "and it was felt all the way from the tip of Alphonse. The Abyssal Ones have all begun to stir once more, Yoma are fleeing the south in record numbers, and according to several Handlers several of the warriors we have situated in Mucha were on the verge of awakening."

"That's impossible." Rado, one of the currently unassigned Handlers said, moving away from the wall to confront Dae "There is no being capable of producing that much Yoki, not even the Abyssal Ones possess Yoki into driving the Yoma to flee an entire region. Not to mention the fact that it would be impossible for a single being to induce a near awakening, let alone so many at the same time."

"It was a synchronicity event." Rimuto said to himself, hand covering his mouth as he considered the information thoughtfully "It was similar in effect to our previous experiments with Rafaela and Luciela."

"Only on a much wider scale." Dae offered eagerly, before glancing at Rado "It is not unheard of for such strange beings to spontaneously come into existence."

"This thing is an aberration," one of the other Elders said "Why and for what purpose we are still unable to grasp, but this being you claim, surely cannot be capable of unleashing such potent Yoki."

"I claim nothing. It is fact that this being exists-" Dae said moving closer to the row of Elders "we must harness this resource. If we act now, using our top warriors, I am confident we can capture this Yoma. Deploying the current Number One Teresa, the most advanced manifestation to date, we can surely-"

"You overestimate our strength." Rubel interrupted, emerging from his customary spot within the back, drawing everyone's attention "At the moment we are able to create a balance between ourselves and The Abyssal Ones, but the balance is a precarious one which would turn against us if we should attempt to capture the creature which possesses such massive and potent Yoki. Even if we could call in Teresa, nothing would change."

"But we must at least know what the source of this phenomenon is, at the very least!" Dae insisted.

At that, the others in the chamber all nodded.

"Agreed. Which Warrior is assigned to the region this surge of Yoki appeared in?" Rimuto said.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: THANK YOU FOR ALL THE FALLOWS AND FAVORITES, BUT I'M ENCOURAGED MOST BY REVIEWS.**

** ALSO, I'LL BE STARTING A NEW JOB SOON SO I WON'T BE ABLE TO UPDATE AS MUCH.**

* * *

It took a lot to unnerve Irene, so much so that it became a very rare experience for her. Normally she was the one that unnerved people, both civilians and her fellow warriors: she spoke even less than Teresa, and had a way of standing so perfectly still that she would pass as a statue. But the thing that unnerved others the most was her stare; she never blinked and seemingly noticed even the tiniest of actions, creating the distinct impression that she was capable of studying their innermost secrets.

Yet for all of these things and despite all of the people she unnerved on a regular basis, even she had one thing that could affect her: standing before the Elders of the Organization in their dim meeting hall. There was just something about them that set her teeth on edge and sent chills crawling up her back, some factor that escaped her intense notice, but that she was still acutely aware of. The one time she had tried to describe the sensation to Teresa – all Irene had been able to say was that it was like "staring at something wholly different than either a human or an Awakened Being, and far more terrifying than facing all three Abyssal Ones on your own" .

Still Irene refused to reveal just how much the Elders unnerved her; she had only ever shared that with Teresa. Keeping her face clear of expression and eyes focused on Rimuto, she waited for the man to begin the debriefing so she could get some distance from them. But it seemed that the man had no intention of speaking anytime soon, interested more in simply staring at her and listening to the utter silence that filled the stone chamber.

"Let us begin." One of the other Elders said at last, his voice soft and raspy. Irene didn't respond, not until Rimuto gave a faint nod - technically she should have started when the first man spoke but she had always waited for his permission. It somehow seemed safer that way.

"We have a task for you, Quicksword Irene. We assume you felt the sudden intense yoki that had suddenly made an appearance and caused mass Yoma migration as a result of the Yoma's attempt to fee from what was generating so much power?"

The second-strongest of the current generation of warriors nodded mutely. Felt it? Her yoki reacted to it and she'd almost awakened involuntarily because of it. All the warriors had. Some trainees and lower-digit warriors needed to be euthanized because they actually HAD Awakened. They were all talking about it. Plainly put, whatever that yoki was, it had all the Warriors shaken.

"Good. What we require from you is that you go and locate that yoki's source. This is a reconnaissance mission, not a hunt. We need to know what the being that gave off such power is, and Abyssal Ones are all beginning to mobilize in search of that power themselves, this is why it requires nothing less that Warriors as strong as either yourself or Teresa. We cannot allow them to lay claim on something so powerful. Failure is not an option. If it has already fallen into the hands of our enemies such as the former Number Ones that have become Awakened Beings, destroy it so that they cannot utilize it against us."

"Understood, sir." Irene said, bowing, "However, what of my usual duties?"

"We'll dismiss you being absent from Yoma hunts as being on a long-term special assignment," Rimuto said, "that IS what you'll be doing in any case."

At that, Irene was so shocked she forgot her anxiety. "Wh-what?! All due respect, but as a warrior of the Organization, I cannot do that! If I go on this assignment, who'll protect the region I'm assigned to?"

"A valid concern, however, it is nothing beyond the level of ability held by our current Number One, Teresa of the Faint Smile." one of the Elders said.

Irene fought down her ire at that, her protectorate region given to her rival...still, orders from the Elders had to be obeyed. And since she was on an assignment to find the cause of that yoki spike, it was something she could understand as well as possibly hold over the Number One's head.

The idea of that made it somewhat more tolerable.

Irene inclined her head. "Understood."

With that, she turned and exited the chamber, eager to get out of the Elders' presence, as well as start her mission.

Stepping outside, Irene grimaced. She was actually going to try finding the source of that yoki? That was insanity at best. Still...orders were orders, and the Organization didn't tolerate any form of deviation or disobedience, no matter how slight.

While death itself didn't frighten Irene, dying without leaving anything behind and being forgotten as a result was something that did. She wanted to have some proof of her existence. To mean something, to matter. If she died, her name would be erased from the records of the Organization, her rank eventually given to someone else, and her symbol erased or given to another.

One more meaningless footnote that no one even bothered to record.

If she were honest with herself, THAT frightened her.

To live without leaving a mark was a terrible thing. To die forgotten was even worse. Yet life was so short and fragile that there was hardly any time to DO anything to ensure either of those things.

It was what pushed her actions. What made her survive.

She couldn't even remember being human anymore, the memories faded to gray and washed away in blood, both that of humans and that of Yoma. And what had that done for her but make her unhappy?

Despite protecting humans, Warriors were feared and shunned due to their incredible powers, their relation to Yoma, and their typically aloof attitudes. Humans often refer to them "silver-eyed witches", "Slayers" or "monsters." Family members of individuals impersonated by Yoma tended to be banished from villages out of fear that they might be Yoma too, and it was often that young girls who suffered this fate or were survivors of villages and towns wiped out by Yoma were drafted into the ranks of the Organization.

Due to their background, the Yoma blood, training, the social isolation and harsh lives, Warriors tend to be outwardly cold, unexpressive and emotionless. They lived unhappy, lonely lives due to their solitary lifestyle and the knowledge that the only thing they have to look forward to was either death or Awakening. Some become hot-tempered and aggressive, some suffer from psychological problems and mental instability, most often due to emotional trauma, and others become homicidal killers who enjoy taking any form of life, more savage than the Yoma they hunt. Generally, companionship with humans was avoided.

Now she was heading out on a potential suicide mission.

She shook her head. There she was thinking about those things again. Warriors weren't supposed to say or think things like that. But the more she did her job as a Yoma-slayer, the more the thoughts snuck up on her.

"You ok, Irene?" a light, seemingly cheerful voice chirped.

Irene rolled her eyes and felt a headache building at the sound of the voice alone.

Teresa...well this was just perfect. The LAST person she wanted to see was her rival right now. Still...given that Teresa was most likely going to be assigned to watch over both of their protectorate regions while Irene did this special assignment, it was inevitable that they would have to deal with one another.

"Fine." the elfish-appearing woman growled, shooting a glare at the one she was out to surpass. "Sent out to track that strange yoki's source and race to discover what it is before Isley, Riful, or Luciela do. And as a solo mission."

Teresa stared, then winced. That was going to be nasty. When she'd felt that yoki, Teresa was in so much agony due to her exceptionally sensitive ability of yoki detection, the pain was so extreme that she almost Awakened willingly just to try blocking the sheer agony out, and then there was needing to find it before the Abyssal Ones...a race against them wasn't going to end well at all.

And, for better or worse, that the insane amount of yoki that had thrown the Organization in a state of panic like this as they scrambled to find the source, had it's echo hanging over the entire land like a shroud still, effectively hindering the warriors ability to sense yoki until it fully disappated. So The Organization's Warriors, the Yoma, the Awakened Beings, and even the Abyssal Ones would all have their yoki-sensing abilities blinded. It masked the energy of them all, so moving around would be easy...it was the fear of being blindsided that was worrisome.

"...Good luck, you'll need it, first or not to find that source." Teresa said.

At that, Irene scowled at the other single-digit. She viewed Teresa as her rival yes, but Irene also respected Teresa more than she did anyone else. "Not to worry...I _am_ only a step behind you, after all. And my fighting style isn't dependent on my yoki-senses."

It was an old quarrel between them, almost ritualistic in nature.

"We seem to have this discussion every time we are about to enter a fight or a hunt," Teresa observed, almost amused

With a chuckle, Irene nodded, "That's all right. I only hope we keep having it, because if not-"

"One or both of us will be dead-"

"Or we'll have Awakened-"

"And then we might as well be dead." Teresa concluded with a bit of grim humor, her infamous faint smile upon her lips. It had become an old joke between them.

Nodding, Irene shouldered her claymore and walked away. She needed to start her search immediately. And she had to do it the hard way.

* * *

Naruto gasped as he ran, one of those monsters were after him. One that looked like the ones he apparently killed before.

It shouted something at him, but it was utter gibberish to the boy.

...Of course, from the way the creature kept roaring and licking it's fangs made what it wanted clear enough: it was gonna EAT him!

How had this happened? He had just been wandering aimlessly as he looked for anything that could lead him home and had come across a village. Sure it was built in a way none of the ones back home, this one having stone buildings, but he didn't care. Hopefully he could get some directions and maybe some food.

Stopping at a stall that had a row of fresh baked loaves of bread,

The man looked at him oddly, what the heck did "Shitsurei, Watashi wa ich o motsu koto ga dekimasu shite kudasai" mean? Sounded weird. Still, the man blinked and laughed when he heard the strange boy's stomach growl. So that's what he wanted!

The man who ran the stall told Naruto something incomprehensible and got a confused look in return.

Realizing they didn't understand one another, the stall owner rubbed his fingers together in the universal gesture for money.

Naruto sighed and turned away. He didn't have so much as a wooden nickle to his name. Even if he did, part of him doubted the currency was the same.

Walking through this place, he felt eyes on him and heard people muttering, while Naruto couldn't understand a word, he was used to people talking about him behind his back enough to know it was about him, and everyone was giving him weary looks seeing as how he stood out with his eyes, hair, whisker-marks, and the way he dressed.

There was some kind of bad feeling around here too, he couldn't explain it, but it was just something he could feel. It worried him because it was different from the kind of bad feeling normal people gave off somehow. It felt...worse, but that was all he could say since he'd never felt anything like it before.

As it got closer, Naruto got more and more nervous. Then, spotting a lit lantern, Naruto suddenly grabbed it and ran over to a barrel filled with animal fat and dunked it into it before tossing it at one of the townsfolk and it shattered as soon as it hit him, causing him to be covered in flames as the glass shattered and the fat caught fire.

As the townspeople looked on in horror at what Naruto had done, some even moving to restrain him, they all froze as an inhuman roar bellowed through the village and the man he had lit on fire stood up, his expression understandably furious.

The man roared again and Naruto watched, frightened, as the man's eyes turned gold with vertical black slits for the pupils and his skin suddenly burst apart, but rather than bone and organs, instead was a seven-foot monster with golden cat-like eyes, razor sharp teeth and claws, muscular, elongated limbs, a barrel torso, and brownish-gray skin.

People screamed and ran as the thing snarled something he couldn't understand to him (Naruto guessed it was a curse, he'd lit it on fire after all). and roared, then lunged, arms out to grab the blond boy whichever way he tried to dodge. Naruto dropped to the ground and the creature flew over him and crashed into the ground, tumbled a little ways, and stopped before pushing itself up, glaring at Naruto.

He could feel how badly this thing wanted to kill him.

Seeing the fangs and claws the beast had, Naruto grabbed a medium-sized hammer with a long handle and a rounded blade on one side of the head from a smithy nearby and faced this new enemy, trying to be brave, just like his idol, the Yondaime Hokage, must have been when facing the Kyuubi no kitsune.

Knowing that waiting would be a bad idea, Naruto rushed forward, then when he was close enough, threw the hammer, surprising the thing he was fighting seeing as it clearly didn't expect the young boy to do such a tactic, catching the monster right in the nose. It backed away, clutching the broken bone and crushed cartilage in pain, somewhat stunned and very angry. Picking up the hammer again as he got near the thing he was fighting, Naruto used the hammer to break the thing's kneecaps and when it hit the ground, started banging the creature on the head, trying to hurt it...maybe kill it. But it grabbed his arm and snapped it like a dried-out branch, then grabbed the hammer itself and, somehow standing as if speed-healed and grinning malevolently, the beast started savagely beating him over the head with it. Naruto, struggling to stay conscious, did the only thing he could think of: He kneed the monster in the groin.

It yelped, releasing both the boy and the hammer, which Naruto picked up and swung with all his might, first smashing the creature's hands and then flipping it around and smashing the rounded blade into the spot his knee collided with moments ago.

The creature bellowed the loudest at that, smacking Naruto away and sending the hammer snoring away down the street and, to Naruto's shock, the creature's fingers shot out and stretched into long, flexible, thin blades and shattered the makeshift weapon to pieces.

Then it glared murderously at hima as Naruto quickly looked around and saw there were still a few poorly-hidden people in the area. He stood up and turned his back to the creature before bending over and yanking his pants and boxers down, exposing his bare butt to the monster while also flipping it off before pulling his pants up and rushing off, his meaning clear: Come and get me.

The monster snarled and bolted after him, challenge issued and accepted, but was shocked when it couldn't catch the little bastard it aimed to kill out of principle alone, to hell with his eating his innards!

Now, that monster was chasing after him. And had been for the past hour and a half.

Lunging, the monster tackled Naruto and pinned him to the ground then sunk it's fangs deep into his right shoulder. Naruto howled.

Spotting a sharp rock, he picked it up and jammed it into the monster's eye, gouging it out. The monster released him as it bellowed in pain and he took advantage of the opening and ran.

The thing continued to chase him into a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides with a mountain pond. He kept running, thankful he was at least fast and had a lot of stamina. Stopping at a broad sandstone formation that curved out of the ground like a great hill and was pocked with caves of varying sizes, Naruto scrambled up it, making his way to one that, he was glad to see, couldn't be seen from the ground. He had to confess the cavern made a good place to rest, it was a good hundred feet long and more than twenty feet wide, yet it had a small opening that protected it from bad weather and prying eyes. Darkness swallowed the far end of the cave's interior, clinging to the walls like mats of soft black wool.

Sighing, the boy felt relieved. He was safe here.

That was when he heard dark chuckling coming from behind him and Naruto whipped around, his face draining of color as the thing that had been after him!

Naruto backed away until his body connected with cold, hard sandstone. The monster almost waltzing with the slow, self-assured gait of a predator that was facing prey that both knew there was no escape, it glared at the blond from it's good eye while the one Naruto had gouged out was shut, swollen and bloody as the creature licked it's fangs, ridding them of the crimson, life-giving fluid that had come from the child's shoulder.

As it did so, Naruto's eyes widened as he realized how he'd been found. His wounded shoulder.

Blood...this thing could smell his blood!

As he shook, Naruto heard another voice, this one he could understand. And it was coming from within his own mind.

**"Ho, let me take care of this...you'd better be grateful to me...though I DO like getting to rip things apart, you're even more hopeless than I first thought before I was stuck in here..." **it said in exasperation before Naruto felt something hot run through his chatora network (as he called it), and vaguely recalled it before the burning seemed to take hold of his thoughts and squeeze then so tightly that he felt them seem to shut off yet he was still awake, like some reversed kind of sleepwalking, if he had to describe it.

What happened next, the blond boy wasn't sure, but when the fire faded from him, his body had a burning sensation in it and he was suddenly happy at what was finally some good news: his shoulder was somehow healed.

Then he caught sight of something that shattered his good mood.

"No..."

The monster that had been after him was now all over the cave's walls and floor.

Naruto should have felt happy he was safe, but as it was, he was even more frightened.

What had that voice in his head been? What was that burning he'd felt? Why couldn't he remember anything? What happened to kill this thing? An what...what was happening to him?! He didn't understand.

He didn't understand, so he fell back on the one emotion humans always felt when facing something unknown. He was afraid.

Trying to wrack his mind for possible answer to what was happening to him, he recalled how he was treated back in Konoha. The way the villagers always gave him such an ugly, icy stare...how they all shunned him...how they all seemed to know something he didn't about himself...how they always called him a freak, a monster, a murderer, and a demon.

Ho Kami-sama! Was that what was happening to him?! That he was the same as this thing, a monster running around in the appearance of a human?!

The idea brought a wracking sob as it made the child feel horrified and broken inside. He slid down the back of the cave and curled up into the fetal position, shivering and cowering in fear with his head buried in his arms and he rocked back and forth.

"Not a monster...not a monster...not a monster...not a monster..." he whimpered, repeating it like a mantra, trying to reassure himself of his own humanity.

He was driven out of his thoughts as his stomach growled, hunger and exhaustion finally caught up to him. Looking at the dead creature, his hunger felt worse all of a sudden.

Meat...

Naruto shook his head and recoiled from the bloody chunks, appalled at the sheer thought. Yet the young boy felt his stomach growl louder and he was too exhausted and distraught to leave the cave and he didn't know about foraging or what was or wasn't safe to eat in the wilderness, they'd never taught him that back in the academy back home.

No choice.

"Don't wanna do this...starving though and can't buy food...don't wanna steal, its wrong...so hungry..." he whimpered with a grimace as he shook all over, his hands closing around a ham-sized lump of the monster's carcass.

Swallowing and closing his eyes tight, he brought it to his mouth and bit down. The initial bite was the worst; it stuck in his throat and metallic, slimy taste of the blood threatened to make him sick as it filled his mouth and ran down his chin. He was actually glad the meat had no flavor to it while he kept his eyes closed and tried to forget just what he was eating as he tore strips of meat off with his teeth, chewed, and swallowed so the meat slithered down his throat and sat like a rock in the pit of his stomach.

After eating his fill of the raw flesh of the monster's corpse, revolted with himself and the idea that he'd have to acquire a taste for the meat of these monsters unless he learned how to hunt since they went after people and would come to him whether he wanted them to or not, he curled up in the middle of the pool of dark purple blood on the hard stone floor. The seven-year-old whimpered, wishing he were a ninja so he could actually know how to fight the monsters back...wishing the Old Man were there to protect him...and more than anything, wishing he were back home in Konoha.

Sure, he wasn't well-liked there, but he could at least know what was going on, and know it was safe there.

Tears running down his face, the whiskered child wondered what he had done wrong enough to deserve this. Being sent somewhere that he couldn't understand, the language and letters making no sense, he wouldn't even be able to get food without resorting to theft or by making a vulture out of himself and feeding on carrion like this, the land was utterly foreign and the people avoided him because they found him odd and allowed their superstitions to rule them, and there were monsters that wanted to eat him alive for no other reason than just because.

All he had wanted to do was help that Uchiha lady...was that so wrong? Why was he punished this way by being made to go through all of this for wanting to be good and do what was right?

It wasn't fair!

Sure his life back in Konoha had been far from perfect, but at the very least, it was better than here. Back home he knew there were people he cared about and that he could make his wants and needs known, back home at least he had dreams to give his life a sense of direction.

Here, wherever this place was, he had absolutely nothing. He was nothing. Just an out-of-place curio that shouldn't even be, something of even less worth than a speck of dust.

But he would survive. He needed to. Until he either learned about this place or found a way home, all he could do was survive.

With such thoughts weighing his heart down, Naruto wept until he fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This is just a small filler to se the mood for the following chapters and also show what's happening back in Konoha**

* * *

Irene scowled. Damn! Twenty yoma traveling in a pack?! She should have sensed it! Damn that yoki shroud blocking her senses! When would it dissipate?!

The yoma all snarled and roared at her as they ringed her like grooms working to capture a runaway horse as Irene scoffed in annoyance at the beasts.

She didn't have time for this.

Her breathing was calm, her heartbeat even and slow. Irene was aware of her body's reactions to the danger- aware and in control. The Number Two raised her the double-edged sword she carried with her.

No sooner had she done so than a third of the yoma lunged at her from all directions. In an instant, each of the yoma became nothing more than chunks of flesh and blood, while Irene stood still as if nothing happened as squirts of blood flew past her, something repelling the bodies' liquids so not a single drop of blood landed on her from killing the yoma at point-blank range. The reason for her nickname was ideal for situations where she was surrounded by multiple opponents like this.

God, she loved her Quicksword technique.

The remaining yoma who had held back suddenly felt going on the offensive was best.

Time seemed to slow, to stretch. Irene spun toward the point, twisted around the outside, and snapped her hands horizontally at chest level. The blade of her claymore sheared through flesh and bone as easily as water, sending the limb to the ground. Irene then dropped to her left knee as, from directly behind her, the spear-like tips of another of her enemies' fingers whistled over her head, barely missing the tips of her long hair.

Without looking, guided by her combat instincts and training, she thrust backwards with her blade, then forward as she spun it from a reverse grip into a forward one-one, two!-skewering one yoma in its chest and splitting one in front of her open from groin to chin. Using the momentum, Irene dived over the collapsing yoma before her, flowing smoothly into a shoulder roll. She came up twirling her claymore overhead, whirling over her head like a propeller, cutting apart even more of the beasts she was embattled with as they tried lunging at her from above. Even as she did the movement, part of her was monitoring her body's state. Her breathing was slow and even, her pulse elevated by no more than two or three beats per minute from its resting rate.

Irene spun on her right foot and shot her left leg out in a powerful side kick, slamming her steel boot into another yoma's chest, stopping it cold and crushing its sternum and shards of the bone flew of of the creature's back from the force of the blow. She dropped into a squat, spun her sword like a scythe, and sickled yet another yoma cleanly at the knees and swinging upwards diagonally, splitting it in two from hip to shoulder. Irene again twisted herself and her weapon. She brought the blade up between another yoma's thighs, hard, using her leg muscles to augment the strike as she pushed up from the squat to a standing position. The force of her strike bisected the yoma from its crotch right through the top of its head. There was a wet thump as the creature came apart in two halves. The acrid smell of blood washed over Irene. The final yoma moved to Irene's left.

She hadn't even noticed as she had killed the rest, it had been so fast.

Irene allowed herself a twitch of her lips. She bent her knees, keeping her eyes on the yoma as she sheathed her weapon on the and settled herself into a low defensive stance, angled toward the yoma at forty-five degrees, left foot forward. She watched as the weary yoma edged toward her. She held one open hand high, by her ear, the other by her hip, then reversed the positions, watching. Waiting. The yoma stole forward a half step. Irene moved her left arm wide, away from her body, exposing her side to a thrust from the piercing, extended fingers of the yoma as it saw the opening and moved in, fast, very fast. Irene hooked her left foot around the back of the yoma's ankle, and pulled as she kicked hard at the beast's thigh with the other, the yoma fell backwards, unable to maintain its balance, and hit the ground and Irene sprang up, did a front flip, and came down with both metal booted heels driving into the yoma's head. The skull crunched and collapsed inward.

Her foes dead, Irene stood and exhaled, relaxed her stance, and nodded as she walked off the yoma's remains and tapped her sabatons' toes against the ground to dislodge the gore from the once-gleaming metal. Her heart rate had accelerated perhaps five beats above normal at most. There was the faintest sheen of perspiration on her forehead; otherwise her skin was dry. Perhaps sixty seconds had elapsed from start to finish. Irene frowned slightly. Not her personal best, by any means.

Twenty-on-one and they hadn't even touched her. There was a good reason she was second only to Teresa, after all.

Spotting something coming near her, she saw it was a wagon with a man and a young girl in it, Irene assumed she was his daughter. Clearly, the yoma she had just killed had been waiting to ambush them. Still...two people and twenty yoma? No way that would work out. The yoma must have been skittish enough to start hunting in packs if they were acting like this.

Whatever Irene was tracking, she HAD to find it first. The consequences of what would happen otherwise were nothing short of apocalyptic in her mind.

Walking up to the wagon as the horses shied away from the scent of blood, Irene called to the man.

"Rather risky to travel these parts." she said.

Turning to who had spoken, the man took less than a second to realize that the person was a woman...then he noticed the pale, almost colorless hair, and the silver eyes.

The man paled instantly. A Claymore!

Seeing his expression, Irene fought the urge to roll her eyes, "Calm down...I'm forbidden to kill humans. I was passing through and went after the yoma. That's all."

The man swallowed, "W-we're off to Rabona. My daughter Alana insists on it. To thank God for sending the Seraph to rescue us from a group of yoma a few days ago when we were in Mucha." the man said, unnerved by the Claymore.

"Seraph? As in a Seraphim, the six-winged angles?" the silver-haired woman said. Oh joy...religious superstition.

The girl nodded, she was trying to see why her father was so afraid of this pretty lady, she'd heard of Claymores, but this was the first time she'd actually met one. "Yes. Burning with power, dropped right out of heaven and saved us back in the southern region. He was so strong too."

"Really?" Irene said, quirking an eyebrow, now this was suddenly much more interesting. The yoki she was sent after had appeared a few days ago in the southern region. Looked like she found a possible lead.

The man swallowed and nodded. Even if she had told him she was merely doing her duty to slay yoma and had no intentions of harming humans, Claymores were still half monster.

"Where were you, exactly?" Irene asked, "I was sent to keep the deadliest of the yoma from finding this Seraph, there's no way the more evolved ones will permit a power greater than their's to exist unless they control it, I'm out to prevent that." she said. While she wasn't a believer, playing along to reach her goals was something she had no qualms with.

The girl spoke up, "Last we heard, the one matching the Seraph's description was in Lautrec, somewhere southeast of Doga."

Irene nodded and walked away, causing the man, to the confusion of his daughter, let out a sigh. Relieved that the unnerving Claymore was gone.

Southeast of Doga...fair distance away, even if she was in the southern region right now already. Still, nothing she couldn't manage. Would be faster with a horse, but the animals couldn't keep passe with the demands of a warrior's duties, and constantly needing to stop to let the animals sleep, eat and drink was an inconvenience that the Organization's warriors could ill afford.

But to call the being she was after a Seraph...she shook her head. Yoki like the kind this alleged being of heaven had was was demonic energy, yet the one who had such potent demon energy was seen as the second-highest being in the celestial ranking, surpassed only by God? It was almost laughable.

Still, she'd need to see this supposed seraph for herself, and now she had direction, even if it was a wide area.

Turning towards the west, Irene ran.

There was no telling who or what she was going to have to deal with and she needed to find this Seraph first. She hadn't encountered the former Number Ones yet, and she didn't know if that was good or bad.

What were they up to?

* * *

"So we're all agreed? This is temporary, and is only to ensure that power doesn't fall into the hands of the Organization." a male voice said to who was in the chamber with him.

The other two nodded.

"I abhor the idea of working with you two...how was it you talked me into this?!" one of them snapped.

"You can't even tolerate normal Yoma, you anti-social Failed Experiment of the south." a childish voice chirped teasingly.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! I'M NOT A FAILURE!" The other figure shouted, their yoki flaring.

The male figure sighed, "Enough, you two. We have enough to worry about without being at one another's throats. The Organization's going to be in an even greater uproar when they learn the three of us joined forces...no need to make their already-difficult situation any easier by killing off each other."

The other two turned to him and nodded, one still scowling, the other with an impish expression on their face.

"Very well...but make no mistake: this alliance is only temporary..." the glaring one snapped.

The childish one giggled "We know...you've got to confess though: This is a first and it'll REALLY go down in history as something that the Organization's going to absolutely HATE! All three of us as as a unified front?! Hah! I swear I can already smell it from when Remito and those warrior lapdogs of the Organization are going to be wetting themselves once they hear about this!"

"Very true...something like this has never happened before and I doubt will again." the male said "Now, let us be off. We have a power to either clam or snuff out!"

The other two nodded.

Exiting the forsaken, ruined, former research facility of the Organization that had served as the makeshift meeting hall, the trio of human-appearing beings stepped out into the light and exposed their identities as they set out in search of the power that had roused them into take such an action as to ally with each other, something even they found shocking.

Luciela of the south, Riful of the West and Isley of the North.

The three Abyssal Ones were joined and on the hunt.

* * *

**OMAKE-Back in Konoha**

_**"WHAT?!"**_ The shout of the Sandaime rang out from the Hokage tower.

Inside the office, highly sealed to allow no eavesdroppers, stood Sarutobi Hiruzen, Uchiha Itachi, along with Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu.

Itachi sighed, "I said I warped him somewhere else with a jikūkan ninjutsu. What else was there to do? My clan dead and Naruto using the chakra of the Kyūbi...the result would have been him being blamed. I had to do it to keep the village from martyring him on the alter of their own hatred for the fox."

The NE leader snorted "The fate of a mere insignificant child is of no importance whatsoever. At least this way, the Uchiha's attempt a coup d'etat can never happen. You cannot deny the immediate results of this course of action."

"Yes...and thanks to your heavy-handed warmongering methods, Konoha has lost the Kyūbi jinchūriki while our enemies still have their own. Those are the "immediate results" your methods and tactics cause you to be so boastful of!" Itachi hissed as a bad taste entered his mouth and left him feeling the need to take a gallon of bleach and a belt sander to his tongue for referring to Naruto like that.

By any and all kami and akuma to ever exist, Itachi truly loathed this abomination in human form! If only he had enough chakra for that "Amaterasu" jutsu he'd heard about from that masked man he'd encountered who claimed to be his ancestor Madara after he obtained the Mangekyo Sharingan and reduce the bastard despot to ashes! To fucking hell with the damage that came from pushing so much chakra through his optic nerve at once!

At that, Danzō's visible eye widened and he suddenly looked panicked "What are you waiting for, Itachi?! Recast the jutsu and bring him back! This village cannot be found lacking in having such a vital necessity to our military capabilities!"

The Hokage and the Uchiha shared a glance, _'Figures he'd only care about Naruto from a military perspective rather than as a person...'_ they both thought, disgusted.

"Clearly you're as foolish as you are bloodthirsty. I just explained why: as a result of your methods in terms of "solutions", he was so furious that he tried using the power of the Kyūbi while at my family's..._former_...compound to attempt to kill me My clan was dead and his using the chakra of the Kyūbi while he was there would have caused assumption and he would have been blamed for the Uchiha being massacred. So to keep the village from martyring him on the alter of their own hatred for the fox and allowing the Kyūbi to rip free of his corpse and finish what it started seven years ago when it nearly destroyed Konoha, I had to use a Jikūkan Ninjutsu to warp him to another reality for the sake of preventing that! I _JUST_ finished saying that!"

"You were the one who pushed for genocide as opposed to subtlety, as such, since this was your methodology, the responsibility for whatever misfortune befalls Konoha all falls on your shoulders, Danzō. You failed to consider any and all possibilities, this included, and now its too late." Sarutobi said grimly, "You've given our enemies this opportunity and doomed this village you claim all your actions are directed towards preserving as a result."

While he could understand to a certain extent some of Danzō's reasons, Hiruzen abhorred his actions and that of Danzō's followers along with the fact the man who was once his friend would willingly allow massive losses for the population of Konoha and his views were a twisted parody of the ideal of Konoha, and despite his apparent willingness to die to defend Konoha, Danzō himself feared death, believing he must live in order to help the world accustom itself to his ideas, which made him a hypocrite on his own belief and that a vast majority of his actions contributed to the formulation of many enemies that Konoha neither wanted nor needed.

Danzō scowled and turned around, leaving the office.

He needed to rectify this somehow. Damn Minato and Kushina's spawn!

Come to think of it...that lesser village, Takigakure, DID have the Nanabi no kabutomushi, yet their jinchūriki didn't necessarily live inside the village, and had her more like a watchdog in the forest area around them.

That could be worked with. It was what Ne was for, after all. Even if it was an officially disbanded branch of Konohagakure's Anbu training subdivision.

Hiruzen was a fool.

He simply couldn't be trusted to naive, too overly-passive. It made him weak.

He knew that from the time he had sent several Root members to assassinate Hiruzen in the belief that the Third Hokage had lost the capacity to effectively lead the village. However, Danzō was soon approached by Hiruzen, who revealed that Kakashi informed him of the assassination attempt. As Danzō feared for his life knowing he would be executed for this treason, Hiruzen calmly chose to spare Danzō.

The fool. The coward.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto paused.

He'd been bathing and washing his clothes in the mountain pond by the sandstone formation that had become his makeshift home the past few days, his attire consisting of a pair of frog-themed boxers, a white T-shirt that had a fire symbol on the front, a pair of shorts, shinobi sandals, and a pair of green goggles that he wore on his forehead.

He sniffed, inhaling air deeply as if he could smell the scent of events on the wind. What was this feeling?

Putting on his sun-dried clothes, the boy when up to his cave at the top. What was bothering him? It was almost like a storm...

* * *

Irene stopped as she stepped into a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides with a mountain pond. The place looked peaceful, but as soon as she sniffed the air, she froze.

The scent of blood?!

Something around here reeked of it.

Following it was more than likely a bad idea, probably a trap, after all, other than the scent of blood, this area seemed utterly void of any yoma at all.

Wait...This area was void of any yoma at all...that didn't just happen...

Recalling that the "Seraph" was in this region if her information was right. If that was the case, then it would make sense! Surely a holy being would lack the ability to tolerate yoma!

She was close! Had to be! Running now, following the scent, she skid to a stop at a broad sandstone formation that curved out of the ground like a great hill and was pocked with caves of varying sizes...all in all, a good place to hide if you didn't want to be found.

This could be it.

Drawing her sword, she looked into one of the caves...only to promptly and unceremoniously drop it. Irene froze, eyes wide with shock "What?!"

She was awed. She was repulsed. But more than anything, she was intrigued.

Checking the rest of the caves, she found more of the same. Dozens of them! Maybe a hundred in all!

Bones!

Every one of them was nibbled clean—she could see the bite marks—and most had been cracked open for the marrow...and judging from the dark purple sheen of the walls and floors of the caves, they weren't from humans either.

_'Wha...What is this?! Yoma bones?! Inconceivable! What creature hunts and feeds off yoma?!'_

Something had been taking advantage of the fact that the yoma were now pack-hunting and had been turning the hunters into the hunted.

Was her target doing this?! Just who or what was this "Seraph" anyway?! Picking up her blade and sheathing it, she wondered if her target was here before she started to climb the sandstone and noticed one more cave that she had missed.

Irene raised an eyebrow, this place...somewhere that couldn't be seen from the ground and the ones people could see were filled with the remains of dead creatures, and whether intentionally or not, the physiological effect would keep anyone away. Especially yoma.

So that was why they were doing things like hunting in pacts...safety in numbers, they felt the need for security.

Irene would have found it amusing, and as a warrior who hunted yoma, even admiral one being had caused the creatures that, if it were to be believed, existed from long ago and preyed on humans as the ultimate predators had been shifted to taking action in the name of having a sense of security and the need for self-preservation by their simply arriving and only reinforcing it with their actions...if what she had found weren't so disturbing.

Pulling herself up and into the topmost cave, she got another surprise.

She stared, shocked. As if this couldn't get any stranger, a young boy was there, curled up and sleeping!

"Mmm...?" he rubbed his eyes and blinked the sleep from them, then looked at her in confusion.

"Anata ga daredearu?" he said, and Irene raised her eyebrows. Huh?

Whatever language he was speaking, this one was absolutely foreign to her in all respects.

"Who are you? I don't understand what you are saying to me..." she said, only to get an look that was as confused as she felt. He didn't understand her either.

The two stared at one another at first and she got an idea and pointed to herself and spoke a single word that he managed to understand, being sure to speak slowly, clearly, and deliberately so there was no mistake.

"Irene."

He looked confused for a second and he then realized that since she was pointing to herself when she said the word, that must mean that what she said was actually her name and he was able to understand that word at least. He nodded, showing to her that he understood.

"Ir...ene. Irene." he repeated it slowly, as if trying the word out on his tongue then smiled at her to show that he understood something at the moment. And since it would be rude not introduce himself in turn, he decided to point to himself and say his name.

"Naruto."

Irene raised an eyebrow. His name was "Naruto"? Odd. She didn't know that word...odd parents, she supposed. After all, one couldn't choose their own name.

Well...she needed to find out if he knew anything, using a foreign language that no one else spoke as a code was simple, yet brilliant and if he was here, he might have seen her objective. And she couldn't leave him here anyways. A human child caught in the crossfire of a mission like this...wasn't going to happen.

Reaching down, she grabbed him by the arm and hauled him to his feet. He looked nervous as she did. While she (or any warrior of the Organization, for that matter) were admittedly horrible at social interactions, much less dealing with children, even without a language barrier to overcome, Irene gave Naruto the best reassuring smile she could muster.

He seemed to relax a bit at it, at least a little as she steered him outside. But as soon as they got to the ground, they found someone waiting to meet them: a young woman in her twenties. She had long hair which she wears in pigtail bunches on each side of her head. She wore a long dress with lots of ruffles.

"You're...!" Irene started to say, only to be cut off as power surged around her and the girl's body shifted and distorted until she had transformed into a large humanoid with feline hind legs, a cat-like head with two gaping jaws, one atop the other, gold cat-like eyes, jagged, bony plates on her back, thighs and elbows and two long, muscular tails.

"Luciela of the South!" the formerly-human being said with a laugh.

Irene tensed. This was bad! But what was she doing in Lautrec?!

"Too bad I found you when you were back south, Claymore. There's only one person I permit in my lands with immunity, and you're NOT Rafaela! With that mystery yoki still smothering everything with its presence, I can't sense yoki auras, so when I found a Claymore in my territory, I figured that we were looking for the same thing, and you'd lead me to it." the monstrous former warrior spared the blond boy with her a glance, "...I have to say, I'm disappointed."

Stepping in front of Naruto and drawing her sword, Irene's eyes turned gold and her pupils stretched into vertical slits "Naruto...stay behind me." she instructed.

While he didn't understand her words, he understood their meaning.

"Suicide? How cute...tell me, what's your rank? If you intend to kill yourself by trying to fight me, I need to know how much I should hold back to keep from wasting energy." the cat-like former warrior said.

"I'm Number Two."

"Two?!" The beast said, then she doubled over, laughing as though having suddenly lost her mind.

"...What's so funny?" Irene demanded, only for a breeze to suddenly pass her and her adversary to appear five feet behind her, and as Irene turned, she suddenly fell to her knees, clutching her stomach as a series of long, deep, jagged gashes appeared on it and she coughed up blood.

She hadn't even seen Luciela move!

"Hahaha! You're far too cocky, little Claymore! THAT'S why I was laughing! But then, this _IS_ the problem with the numerical ranking system; most Claymores assume that since their number is an indication, they're stronger than they actually are! Rank and ability are two different things! Numbers and symbols don't matter out here in the real world!"

"Irene! Anata wa daijōbudesu ka?!"

Naruto looked horrified as, within his mind, he was suddenly at a different place...a different time...with a different woman and facing a different monster.

The compound of the Uchiha Clan with Mikoto and Itachi.

NO! Not that nightmare! Not again! With a raw-throated yell, the seven-year-old boy rushed the monster head on. Followed almost immediately by something cinching tightly around his throat lifting him off the ground. Hands coming up instinctively, he attempted vainly to pull the thick appendage from around his throat, only for a jolt of pain radiating from his stomach to disrupt his efforts.

"Brave brat...stupid, but credit for guts, I'll give you that much. A squirt like you attacking Abyssal One head-one, alone and unarmed...speaking of guts, I'll be feeling hungry later, so just go stay off to the side like a good boy while I kill this Claymore." she said, finally releasing the throat of the now implied boy and tossed him off her limb and he slammed against a tree, back-first, with enough force to topple it.

As she licked the blood off her hand, Luciela absently noticed the boy was still alive, hurt and clutching his wound as he tried not to black out, but alive nonetheless...and attempting to stand up without success. How amusing.

"...Kono yarou, bakeneko-teme!" he spat, glaring at her as best he could. What that meant, she had no idea, but she got the distinct impression he insulted her.

Naruto tried to get up, to stand...to fight. He could tell this cat-monster was strong just by looking, but he had to protect Irene! He wouldn't fail again! She wasn't going to die! As long as he could do something, she wasn't going to die! He gagged and coughed up blood, glaring at the thing that had once been a girl, hating both her...and himself for being so weak.

**"Frustrating, isn't it...your weakness. Without strength, you cannot protect anything; let alone yourself or those within your sight. That's the only part of that bastard Indra's might-controls-everything mindset I acknowledge or even begin to consider. And even then, that's because Asura pointed out that you needed to have things you cared about and wanted to be strong in order to protect first to make you need that strength. Asura always did have more sense like that. Claimed power comes in response to a need, not a desire."**

That voice again!

At any other time, Naruto would have been shocked by it, but that cat-thing was drawing closer to Irene, her claws extending inch by inch with each step.

NO!

Seeing what was about to happen, Naruto felt a terrible rage fill him. He shut his eyes and looked inside to a dark place that had always been there. _'If that's true, then give me power! Just enough to save her!'_ He cried out with his thoughts.

And there was an answer, something frightening stirred. He felt its power flow through him like fire **"Done!"** The voice boomed and began to laugh.

Luciela suddenly froze as he felt a new demonic aura fill the air "...This power!" The one the three of them had be searching for! Her jaw dropped as she turned and saw just where it was coming from and was utterly shocked. THE BOY?! "No...Way! A child?! One that's not even a Claymore?! Impossible!"

As his energy spiked, red chakra immediately turned to the bubbling complete fox outline version complete with two tails waving in the air behind him and he rushed forward, sinking his fangs into the demonic thing that stood before him.

Yowling as she felt the boy's power inject into her from his fangs as the aura began to scream in agony as she felt her body being burned by the raw power as she shook him off and hissed as she glared. Then she noticed something about him.

Judging by the way he was biting twitching every so often, and the way his eyes quivered, this power wasn't comfortable at all for him to use.

But no yoma or Awakened Being should be unable to cope with their own powers...and the way he was acting...

The feline Abyssal One scoffed as she stood, facing the two-tailed Naruto hatefully, "All that power and no control! It's pathetic! You're little more than a mindless, rabid beast. This is disappointing! To think the Three Great Awakened Ones of the Abyss joined together for a thing like you! I'll kill you for such an insult! At least this way, you can never be used against the Abyss Trinity...URAGH!...I can't believe I said that! Damn Riful and her childishness! Naming our alliance that!"

Irene groaned as she opened one eye, trying to focus through the pain. "...An alliance...?"

Turning to the downed woman, the cat frowned at her"I detest repeating myself, but this kid gave off so much power that all three Abyssal Ones joined forces to keep him out of the Organization's clutches."

Seeing Irene's sudden look of utter horror, the cat-like being laughed. "Wait...I take that back. I'll enjoy repeating it, just to see the expression on your face...such terror, such shock, such utterly denial in some stillborn-hope I'm lying...I like it!"

A roar and a shockwave threw her aside as it hit her, sending her flying and she splashed into the pond and she got up sputtering and hissing, she was a cat after all. She hated getting wet.

"Damn you, boy!" She screamed.

Irene watched as he rushed forward, a now-clawed hand dragging along the ground and slashed upwards at the Awakened Being, she dodged, but what she didn't expect was for the energy around his arm to flow after the blow and extend past it for a follow up attack that slammed into her and sent her flying.

"What?!" Irene said, then she recalled what Naruto had earned as an alias. She chuckled to herself as she figured it out and turned her attention to healing, while she was an offensive warrior, her regeneration was decent, and she had the time with the creature of the abyss occupied.

"...I see...now I understand. That red yoki aura...it moves in tandem with his own actions...if he really did seem to drop from the heavens, then the ears, the two tails, and the aura forming the arms and claws could easily be mistaken for wings as they trailed off of and behind him like that. And how it seems to blaze around him like fire...putting all the factors together and that's why he was called a Seraph when he was using this power before."

As Luciela trudged out of the water and shook herself dry, she froze at the sudden touch of metal to her neck stopped her from stalking over to Naruto again to see just how much abuse the young man's body could take before it gave out. Her eyes turned to the blade planted against the side of her neck at her jugular vein, noticing the elf-resembling Number Two of the current generation of warriors as the source of the attack. Scowling at the annoying fly, the feline creature had a mouth appear on the side of her neck and grip the blade between it's teeth and slashed at her vertically from the waist up and was mildly impressed when the Claymore held onto her blade.

Stupid, she'd focused so much on the abnormality the child presented, she had allowed the Claymore time to regenerate.

"Do you think you can really hurt me with something like that Claymore? You know better than that."

"Shut up!" Irene snapped, then regretted it instantly as she let out a cough,sending up blood, and still she glared at the Awakened Being, "I don't listen to monsters!"

The ex-warrior sneered and wheeled around so her tails knocked Irene away and then slammed her to the ground before stomping brutally on the Number Two's rib cage, feeling rewarded at the sound and feel of breaking bones. The claws of her foot extending and sinking deep into the woman's body.

She let out a pained cry and writhed on the ground accordingly, her eyes fading from gold to silver and her pupils became rounded, the pain was so intense that she couldn't even focus her yoki powers.

" Don't listen to monsters...that's funny considering what the Organization's like and the fact that being like me EXIST because of them. If I'm a monster then what does that make you?" Luciela pressed a clawed hand to her own chest for emphasis, "I was a warrior of the Organization myself once. Same as you. We're both monsters. Difference is...I'm no longer one of the Organization's lapdogs. Where I go, what I do...its for _**ME **_to decide. I wonder...can you say the same without it being just the empty words a ventriloquist makes come from the mouth of a puppet because doing whatever others tell you is all you know? Really...where's your sense of self? When was the last time you decided something for yourself? Used your own eyes and brains to come to your own conclusions by your own will? Monster I may be, but at least I'm no mindless drone."

As she continued torturing the woman, grinding her foot into her, there was another abrupt spike in power that caused Luciela's eyes to light up at the boy's aura. Turning her attention to him, she was fascinated to see even more red chakra start to pour out of Naruto. The red was so deep that it started to take on shades of black and brown. It swarmed in the ground and and air like a dense fog before swirling towards Naruto encasing him in an orb of almost black chakra.

And suddenly, without warning, the orb burst with such force that the release of the power tore and strew everything around him like leaves in a hurricane. When Irene opened her eyes, she surveyed the area with something similar to awe, where the dust obscured Naruto from sight looked to be the depths of some long dried out lake. The landscape would never be the same again.

As the dust settled Naruto stood on all fours and four tails of crimson chakra danced menacingly behind him while chakra rolled off of them like flames and the energy like a blood red skin over his own, his eyes were pure white and he had a fanged glasgow mouth like a jack o'lantern and long, rabbit-like ears.

"So there are levels…he can get even stronger. Not that it's enough though, with him being reduced to nothing but an ignorant beast. But it's still very intriguing." Luciela purred, stepping off Irene and punting her in the side to get her out of the way.

Naruto's chakra cloak began bubbling more intensely and began to get so intense that the ground started melting beneath his feet, "So much power...And yet you have even more you haven't shown me?" Her grin turned positively malicious as her own body exploded with waves and waves of yoki, "Heh! As much as I hate Isely, it seems this alliance he proposed between us Creatures of the Abyss was well-warranted! We can't let this child gain control of yoki power this great!" she couldn't help it but to be worked up, the level of sheer power he was putting out was getting her excited, rousing some primal, brutish part of herself that felt as though it had been sleeping since after she'd first awakened.

He reared back and roared as a large amount red and blue orbs began to break free from his body as they floated around him. Naruto brought his tails forward over his head and the orbs began to form together into one large purple sphere the size of a mountain, then it suddenly compressed into the size of a ping-pong ball that was so heavy that the ground around him sunk beneath his weight after he swallowed it.

Her battle-lust abruptly ending, Luciela felt the blood drain from her face. That was WAY TOO MUCH yoki! And from what she could sense, it was barely 1/1000th of his power in that orb! She couldn't sense anything higher or her detection ability might overload and self-destruct!

"WHA...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" she screamed as his upper body convulsed forward and the ball of raw energy he'd swallowed shot out of his mouth and zoomed at her like a cannonball.

The roar of the energy being released deafened both the Warrior and Awakened Being, and the flash blinded them. Their skin prickled painfully, as the heat from the energy burned their flesh. The concussive shock knocking them to their knees.

The beam of energy consumed the land in front of it, and the attack struck the Awakened Being with devastating force that completely enveloped her,in a massive flash of white and a large explosion.

Naruto stood on all fours as he waited for the smoke to clear, but out of the haze someone stumbled out.

A human-formed and very hurt Luciela. "D-da-damnit! I was forced...to revert...back? So...this is...the boy's...power...his energy...its in my...wounds...too caustic...burns as if it were...holy power...I...I can't...maintain...my Awakened form with...it inside me...! Got...too confident...to think...an Abyssal...losing to such...a beast...Damnit!"

Pushing and crawling her way free of the debris, Irene gasped and tried to steady herself from the force of the vibrating through her, then she looked up and saw the weakened creature in human form. "I'm surprised you survived that, but I suppose you're not a Creature of the Abyss without justifiable reason."

Luciela glared and spat at Naruto loathingly before sneering at Irene. "Pity...I Awakened...love seeing...him in pieces...once the Organization's...got him on...an operating table...after you hand him to them...and to think...a mere child...will be repaid as such...after he...fought so hard...to save a thing...like you!"

With that, she stumbled away, cursing the blond and muttering about how if she and her sister Rafaela were both Awakened and fighting as a team, they would've beaten him into a smear in second all the while.

Stabbing her sword into the ground, Irene pulled herself up and looked as Naruto roared in triumph then started shaking as his aura completely vanished. His form was steaming as bits of his skin slowly regrew over exposed flesh. Once his body was fully human, Irene noticed Naruto was drenched in blood-his blood-and blinked blearily before stumbling towards her a step before he pitched forward.

Flaring her yoki just enough to give her energy to move, Irene made a short dash forward, catching the child. Sighing, she half-carried, half-dragged him to the pond and gently lowered him into the lake then gently ran her wet hands along his body, wiping away the blood from his body.

He shuddered at the touch of the water and her hands, doubtlessly he was quite sensitive at the moment, considering he'd just regrown his skin.

As she washed the blood off him, her gaze was soon drawn to a strange tattoo of a spiral framed by some kind of runes as it faded into existence on his abdomen. This was something she couldn't wrap her mind around, no matter how much she tried. How, and why, did a tattoo suddenly appear when there'd been nothing there before? Hesitantly she brought her fingers to it, greatly surprised to feel an unnatural warmth originating from it that seemed to spread to the rest of the body.

Her eyes widened as she felt a spark of yoki come from the marking before she watched, fascinated, as the marking faded away as though it had never been there.

Who, or what, was Naruto?

Naruto let out a slight whimper as he slowly felt himself regain consciousness. Feeling the water, he forced an eye open and saw that Irene woman was cleaning blood off him. Huh? How had he ended up covered in blood? And where was that monster that had bee out to hurt them? He couldn't remember anything.

Looking at the woman, he wouldn't deny she was very pretty. He noticed the long, pale, almost colorless silver hair, and the silver eyes, how they had changed to gold with slits he had no idea, but he liked the silver more, and her pointed ears like an elf's, her aquiline nose, and her pale, fair skin. She was dressed in a kind of uniform, a light gray two-piece suit, with a mock-neck dickie marked with the some kind of symbol near the base of the throat. Over top of this, she wore several pieces of armor that he'd never seen before: shin-high, slightly heeled metal boots, large wrist-guards, shoulder pieces and a partial skirt. Finally, she wore a short gray cape. How could she move with so much metal?

Since her shirt was damaged, it revealed the entirety of her upper torso and then he noticed something that made him cringe.

His eyes traced the contour of what appeared to be a hand sized vicious stretch of dark, bumpy flesh and a large vertical incision extending from the base of her neck all the way down and continued until her intact clothing covered it. It was like a wound only now beginning to scab over, its edges fused to the smooth flesh of her sternum as if they had been melted together, held closed by sutures that ran its length-and strangest of all, it appeared that it breathed in a rhythm counter to Irene's own. Naruto fought the urge to reach out and poke it, but he could not look away, filled with a strange kind of fascination.

"Irene...anata wa daijōbudesu ka?" He repeated what he'd said earlier, looking at where her injuries had been, as if not sure he was seeing things right and was looking for something that should have been there but wasn't.

Irene wondered what he was saying and why he was looking at her like that...then, noticing he was staring at where her wounds from the battle had been as well as the stigma scar that was proof that she was half yoma, the sign that something abhorrent was living within her body, and with a shock, she seemed to figure it out.

He was asking if she was ok.

Giving him a small smile, she nodded to him and he gave her a huge, toothy smile before he fainted. The Number Two wasn't shocked to see he was out cold. Generating that much yoki power and fighting a former Number One that had turned into an Awakened Being...only natural he'd be exhausted.

He'd certainly earned his rest, that was undeniable.

So this child was the Seraph she had been looking for? How absurd. If she hadn't seen his power for herself just now, she'd had never believed it.

Either way, mission complete. As she was about to lift him up and begin her trek back to Staff to deliver him, as per her orders, Luciela's words rang in her mind, almost mocking her:

_I was a warrior of the Organization too myself once. Same as you. We're both monsters. Difference is...I'm no longer one of the Organization's lapdogs. Where I go, what I do...its for ME to decide. I wonder...can you say the same without it being just the empty words a ventriloquist makes come from the mouth of a puppet because doing whatever others tell you is all you know? Really...where's your sense of self? When was the last time you decided something for yourself? Used your own eyes and brains to come to your own conclusions by your own will? Monster I may be, but at least I'm no mindless drone._

_Pity...I Awakened...love seeing...him in pieces...once the Organization's...got him on...an operating table...after you hand him to them...and to think...a mere child...will be repaid as such...after he...fought so hard...to save a thing...like you!_

That made her freeze. The Organization would really just turn this child into a live guinea pig for human experimentation until there was absolutely nothing left of him?

The part of her that was loyal to the Organization denied that. But...

He'd fought so hard, turned himself into that thing...all for the sake of protecting her. Luciela could have killed her in less than the blink of an eye. The whole reason she was still alive now was thanks to him and his willingness to go so far as to forsake his own humanity if need be to ensure her well-being.

Then there was the news that Isley, Riful, and Luciela had all formed an alliance to get their hands on him, yet couldn't sense him yet and were keeping tabs on Warriors to have them track him down for them on account of Naruto's own massive yoki drenching just about the enter continent and masking all other yoki aura sign...especially with how he released more of it in the fight.

They'd be expecting him to be turned over and would try snatching him the moment she neared the eastern region. And if they were waiting for someone to be turned over to the Organization to lean who the being they were targeting that had forced them to ally with each other was, even after Luciela's report...

Even if it was an order from the Organization...even though the target was right in front of her...

She made up her mind. Be it the Creatures of the Abyss or the Organization, they would not get this boy.


	5. Chapter 5

Teresa rolled her silver eyes. Why was this girl so insistent on following her?!

The child had come from Teo, one of the lands she was supposed to safeguard while that region's usual Warrior was away on that "special assignment" of hers...and she could swear she could almost see and hear Irene laughing at getting herself into this mess!

Sure she had found out the girl was kept as the prisoner and toy of one of the creatures it was Teresa's duty to slay for quite some time, and thus, by killing the yoma, had "rescued" the trauma-muted brat...only now she wouldn't stop following her! It was like having a second, very unwanted shadow!

_'Dammit, you quick-drawing, pointy-eared bitch! Orders or not, this is all your fault!'_

* * *

Naruto looked up as his companion suddenly sneezed. Someone must have been talking about her. He shrugged and went back to his lesson as he drew the letters of his own language and the corresponding ones of the land he'd found himself in vertical parallel lines to teach himself how to read here.

It had been nearly a month since he'd started traveling with Irene and, in that time, he had been learning the mannerisms, customs, history, and language of this place's inhabitants from Irene. The initial attempts to learn the language were incredibly troublesome but had become easier when Irene got the idea to compare words and grammar between her and Naruto's languages using simple objects such as rocks and trees as a base point from which to expand their respective vocabularies. Naruto would admit to himself that, even after the time spent with the silver-eyed woman, there were still far too many holes in their language he had yet to fill. Still, he knew enough to make his needs known, and for now that would suffice.

Still, he wasn't good enough at speaking the native tongue yet, so the pair usually used gestures and drawings to communicate for now. Fortunately, Irene had been quick to figure out Naruto was a tactile learner, meaning that he learned better through executing a task rather than theorising or being lectured about it, and that was actually the best thing for the language problem. He learned best by actually doing and things like learning to speak had to be done that way.

Furthermore, while also serving as his teacher, Irene had gotten him a new outfit so he wasn't so conspicuous.

Now the blond boy was dressed in a plain black leather jerkin and black leather breeches with a dark grey, hooded cloak over it all and a black scarf wrapped around his face to hide his features up to his cheekbones, and a pair of sheaths for two seventeen-inch-long dirk, eleven of those inches being the long, straight blades of the weapons, attached to his hip, both weapons he had hidden on his person, and a set of sturdy leather boots.

Getting him a new outfit had been a simple task for the Claymore. And she had to keep him from being recognizable anyway, Luciela HAD seen what he looked like while he'd given her that beating, after all.

Irene wasn't a fool. She understood that there were some forces that were simply too dangerous to be allowed in anyone's hands, no matter who they were. The boy's power easily fell into that category, which was why neither the Abyssal Ones or the Organization could be allowed to claim him. To that end, she had decided to become Naruto's guardian until she figured out what to do with him.

Needless to say, no matter how safe it would seem, taking him to the Holy City of Rabona would be a disaster.

Not only was it too obvious a move and she wasn't allowed there, being half-yoma, but he was still learning things like how to speak the language here, she couldn't just leave him there where he'd be forced to be on his own, besides...she'd heard mutterings from the people about "the Seraph" lately. Seems a certain cat-based Awakened Being had been cursing him and she had trouble keeping her mouth shut...especially since she had two of them. Leaving the boy who had that alias there would have been too much stimulation for him, and undoubtedly the Abyss Trinity...she shuttered, even _thinking_ about the three Abyssal Ones all joining together was frightening...would easily be able to tear the city apart to get their hands on him.

"Irene."

Hearing the only word, her name, that the blond boy spoke fluently, she looked up and nodded to him before she walked over and dragged her foot along the ground in front of Naruto, erased the two alphabets.

It was a test they did, his recollection and comprehension of the letters he'd learned. Have him write the two so that he could com them and learn what each of the letters were and meant. Then she'd erase them and have him rewrite the two alphabets side by side like they had been to see if he retained what he'd been studying. She'd draw a check mark in the ground next to ones he got wrong when he was finished rewriting the two.

It helped her learn his language's writing too.

After a few minutes when Naruto was doing that, he stood up and stepped back while Irene checked his work.

Hmm...getting better. This was the first time he'd gotten them all perfectly. She nodded. The first few times, it had been an utter failure. More than once, she'd beaten him over the head with the flat of her sword for him trying to etch the letters deeper so that after she'd erased them, he could simply trace the answers. Let it be known that Irene was a firm teacher that lacked any degree for tolerance for cheats, fools, and laggards.

Happy with the approval, Naruto held up his daggers, and she understood. Working on it now that his lesson was done and his time was his own, huh? "Trying to get your rippling technique down again?" Irene asked, brow cocked.

Ever since the fight with Luciela and he'd gotten those daggers, she'd been not only teaching him language lessons, but also training him how to fight.

Since he'd started his training, Naruto had been experimenting, trying to make something that would help him fight the yoma.

He'd gotten an idea where he could make a technique that made use of the flexible quality of both his body and his weapons to vibrate and undulate his weapons, making them resemble rippling snakes. This illusion, when perfected, would cause his strikes to be near-impossible to anticipate or block as they could weave around an opponent's defenses. When he was finished, the move would prove to be difficult to counter since it couldn't be predicted either visually or, since it was a non-yoki dependent move, with sensing.

He'd explained it with motions and pictures, so it took a while for Irene to understand, but Once she did, she had to confess the technique was clever and had potential. But he couldn't get it to work properly. His arms shook, but the blades were still...he couldn't get the effect he wanted from them.

Irene had tried to explain to him she didn't think it would work, but she had to give him his due for one thing: no matter what language it was in, the words "impossible", "quit", or any synonyms of the words just didn't exist for him.

His work ethic was impressive.

Throwing a hooded cloak of her own over herself and wrapping her sword in cloth to hide what it actually was, Irene jerked her head to the side and started walking, Naruto trying to get his invented technique to work as they headed for the next town. The young boy tailed after the firm woman that had seemed to take him, as least he THOUGHT she had, based on her actions since he was still learning the language and didn't understand all the words. He felt grateful for her kindness towards him. She didn't have to help him, yet she had taken it upon herself to do so.

He tensed as he seemed to feel eyes upon them when they got to their destination and Irene fought down the urge to chuckle. He wasn't a warrior, but he had sharp intuition as well as some kind of sixth sense that somehow allowed him to detect, not yoki power, but the proverbial darkness in others, something no warrior could ever do, thus rendering it nearly impossible to hide from him, no matter who or what you were; human, yoma, or Awakened Being.

It only reinforced her decision that keeping him from the Organization was the wise thing.

Gesturing for him to stay where he was, Irene walked over the the man in black as he lingered near the entrance to the town and stood in front of him.

"It's me." she voiced.

The man cocked an eyebrow. Covert operation tactics? Why? Furthermore...

"What is that?" The Watcher asked, eyeing where Naruto stood, watching the pair.

"Nothing to do with you. Having a traveling companion and keeping my eye color, sword, and attire from the Organization hidden prevent any undo alarm to herald where I am, makes hunting information on my special assignment easier. Now what do you want?" Irene said, easily explaining herself in a way that would have the man shrug off Naruto's presence as a temporary expendable asset and be nothing to be concerned with at all.

Ah. So that what it was all for. Her mission. Credit where it was due, the Number Two-ranked hybrid was proceeding in the best way to accomplish her objective.

"Ironic that you ask me that after mentioning your current assignment...have you discovered the source of the yoki?" the black-clad man said.

"Not yet, and respectfully, I need to speak directly with Rimuto about my mission immediately, the situation has become...more complicated. So much so I need to inform him directly before anyone else in the Organization." she said.

Her handler fell silent at that, he knew someone as high-ranking as "Quicksword Irene" wouldn't say as such without valid reasoning, and more importantly, if it was so urgent, Rimuto would be furious if he wasn't informed. "...Very well."

Irene nodded. Then turned around and went over to the one she had come here with. They spoke for a bit, the handler frowned as he watched, the one with her must be deaf, since it was mostly hand gestures as Irene tried to impose the idea of "stay here" to them.

Finally, the person pulled out a set of long daggers, causing the watcher to look on in amusement. So the person was that naive? They actually thought they could challenge the current number two and win? It would be funny if it weren't for that law to never harm humans no matter what.

Judging from the look of annoyance on Irene's face, she felt similarly, shooting her handler a look. The man nodded. He'd keep quiet just this once. He needed a laugh right now anyway, and some dunce that didn't realize they were nothing but temporary expendable asset and was unaware of just how outclassed a normal human was by a hybrid would do just fine for that...assuming she stunk to non-lethal force.

Pulling her sword out, Irene flipped it so that she was using the flat as opposed to the edge. She just hoped she could do this without Naruto drawing on his power. That'd just ruin everything she was trying to do by protecting him.

Naruto circled her, looking for an an opening, knowing that if he just rushed forward like a wild boar, he was finished. Irene was aware of his movements, even as she felt him get behind her.

With a blur of motion Irene jumped at him, aiming a blow at his ribs. Naruto reflexively dodged, knowing his blades couldn't parry her own weapon. Adjusting his grip on his dirk, Naruto landed and rolled away as Irene slammed the flat of her blade where he'd been standing. with his speed and agility Naruto was able to dodge almost anything she threw at him so far, while with her superior strength and reflexes, as well as the superior weight of her sword, Irene was able to counter and block all his strikes.

The two blades met her claymore in a shower of sparks. As Naruto moved to attack and keep the pressure on, Irene batted his dirk aside as if the two long straight-bladed daggers were no more than flies. The woman didn't take advantage of the opening, however, but spun to her right and struck at his other side. Naruto jumped over the massive sword and aimed to land a kick while also tossing one of his blades at her from under the shadow of his leg.

Naruto stabbed at her left shoulder with his other blade. Moving in a surprising show of flexibility, that had Naruto's eyes widening slightly, Irene leaned back so far her head almost touched the ground as the blade Naruto hand tossed cut through the air where she had been a moment before. Leaning back up, she own slash towards her chest while pressing her advantage since she couldn't block because of his missed attack.

Instead of fighting it to try and block his strike, Naruto used the momentum from his flying kick to role out of the way from her attack, causing it to miss. Following through with his role and landing on his feet a few yards away from his opponent, and retrieving the dirk he'd tossed at her from the ground as he did so the blond boy took a moment to try and slow his rapid breathing from the fast-paced fight that had only just begun. Taking a moment to asses her style only to realise she wasn't even out of breath.

Naruto scowled as he stood up, snarling. To In order to exist you need a purpose, to exist for no reason is the same as being dead! He must...he needed to stay with Irene! He didn't know anyone else and had nowhere to go! As he thought of being how he been before she'd found him...nowhere to go, no one to matter to, living in the wild as little more that a glorified beast whose lived for no other reason to other than the instinct of the action to be alive...something in him snapped.

He lunged, his body shaking so badly that even his dirk seemed to change into a kris.

Irene's eyes widened. He'd done it!? How?! normal humans couldn't undulate their arms, much less move at all, that fast and and his blades were too short to allow it!

As he swung at her, she realised that the technique's effect was just as he hoped it would be: his strike was be near-impossible to anticipate or block as it could weave around an opponent's defenses and was difficult to counter since it couldn't be predicted either visually or, since it was a non-yoki dependent move, with sensing! It was like a pair of thrashing snakes!

Shocked, Irene was caught flat-footed as the dagger weaved around her blade and she flooded yoki into her arm out of reflex as the vibrating blade neared her skin.

Naruto was suddenly sent flying by something he couldn't see as it connected with his dagger with a metallic clang and landed three hundred feet away. When he struck the ground, he tumbled ten times and stopped, lying spread eagle on his back. And still, he grinned.

As Irene stared at where he'd landed, she felt no shame in that her jaw was hanging slack and that Naruto ran back up to her and got to within five feet of her before she collected herself. Of course!...Normal humans couldn't use that rippling technique, but while Naruto's humanity was unquestionably undeniable, he _was human_..he just _wasn't normal_! If anything, he was similar to a Warrior of the Organization.

Either way, quasi or pseudo, Irene's eyes narrowed she realized that she'd been underestimating her charge.

As he stopped in front of her, Naruto grinned under his hood and scarf that he'd at least made her use her Quicksword technique at least once and when he'd been knocked away by it, he hadn't even loosened his grip on his two dirk, feeling accomplished. Maybe he had proved himself now and he'd be allowed to stay!

Seeing her expression however, he knew he was in trouble. Irene would be taking him seriously now.

The blade in Irene's hand swung downwards in an arc towards Naruto's neck, the flat being used in place of the edge. Naruto blocked it with all his strength. His arms shook and he fell to his knees as the flat of the blade made contact with his daggers. _'She's so strong!'_ Naruto thought. He tried to push forward but Irene's arm seemed to be made out of stone. Naruto felt something jolt his arms, and tingling feeling run through his arms to his head.

Naruto swung his other blade but Irene simply pushed off the other blade to block the left one. As Naruto blocked it, she shrugged him off and Naruto tumbled backwards. Landing ungracefully on his butt, Naruto used the momentum and rolled backwards, the blond saw he had been kicked backwards. _'Dammit, I didn't even see her move!'_ Naruto got up slowly. The blow hadn't hurt but it did shake him up.

Not wanting to repeat what happened before, Naruto charged in and jumped up, swinging at Irene's shoulder. The female warrior simply crouched lower and punch Naruto in the gut.

Naruto flew back, coughing. That blow definitely hurt. But as he flew, he tosses one of his blades at Irene, which she caught in mid-flight effortlessly. Naruto stood up once more and charged again. This time instead of just dodging and countering, Irene stood like a mountain. Using the blades she was armed with and the backs of her fists, Irene parried Naruto's blade as well as his blows with his body. At times she would move the blades downwards and proceeded to punch Naruto in the face. At other times, she got Naruto to over extend his strikes and Irene would move to the side and trip him. This lasted for a minute before Naruto was breathing hard and Irene was still standing in the same spot.

Naruto stood up; his muscles were burning with exertion, and his heart hammering. Naruto glared at Irene. He was being toyed with worse. What was Irene thinking? To show why she was leaving him? Naruto charged forward swinging his dirk in a diagonal manner. Irene blocked and stood still. Irene looked into Naruto's furious eyes. Irene smirked ever so slightly, making Naruto growl. Naruto headbutted Irene, but rather than stumbling back clutching her head, brought up her leg. Kicking forward, the heel of the foot crashed into Naruto's gut. Winded, Naruto tumbled back, his vision was now fuzzy and his stomach now felt numb. Then...

Naruto didn't make a peep when hurt, instead taking it all with a defiant look on his face. Even as his hands became useless and his daggers dropped to the ground from having the flat of Irene's massive sword break the bones of his elbows from the force of her blows.

Both arms broken, he stuck his foot under one of his weapons and flipped it into the air and caught it in his mouth and held the blade in his teeth while glared as he panted. He wouldn't lose! If she was going to dismiss him from being with her, he had to do that much to prove to her that he was worth keeping around!

Irene looked at Naruto. Damn...and she thought taking down Awakened Beings was hard. He just never gave up.

Good.

And his combat training was coming along nicely from what she'd seen. It made her feel a degree of pride. Sure he seemed to be doing sloppy, but when one took the time to compare the differences between them such as experience and ability, it was to be expected he'd do poorly to an observer from the outside.

Still, Some people just had a look about them that tells something. And Naruto's look told her that once he'd polished his skills a bit more, all she'd ever see the boy do would be getting the job done.

It was all a matter of "yet".

Leaping upwards and flipping so she landed behind him, she grabbed him by the back of his throat and she sent jolts of yoki into him. Naruto's eyes widened. Morse code? While the academy hadn't taught him much, that scar faced dolphin guy taught him how to read and transmit that much at least.

Stay here and keep out of trouble, she'd be back as soon as she could huh? So she wasn't dismissing him? He felt relieved.

He turned to look at her over his shoulder and gave a nod so minute that if she hadn't been doing her job so long and learned to let nothing escape her notice. With that, Naruto fell forward as if knocked out cold. He was faking and both he and Irene knew it, but no one, even the handler, knew otherwise. She sheathed his daggers and picked him up and carried him into an inn. After a moment, she emerged by herself. Having put her ward in lodging there so she could come back and get the blond later.

She was actually surprised that he'd understood the morse code of yoki pulses she'd used. She didn't know he understood the code system that composed it. She wished she had earlier, it would have made learning to communicate with Naruto easier until the language barrier problem was dealt with.

...Not that it did mean anything in regards to his language lessons. Ho no, not in the slightest least bit! He was NOT going be be allowed to slack off for any reason whatsoever, not on her watch!

"That took longer than expected, you're not slipping are you?" the man in black asked.

Irene scowled at him, insulted. "I was keeping to the law not to kill humans. Made the fight harder than it needed to be. Now let's go."

The man nodded in acknowledgement of that and the two turned and left for Staff and the Organization's headquarters.

* * *

"My request is in regards to my assignment: I hereby request that it be postponed."

The gathered Elders erupted into chaos as every one of the masters of the Organization began to shout, wave their hands, and otherwise attempt to dominate the conversation, all of them demanding answers in disorganization. When at last Rimuto succeeded in restoring order, he glared at Irene with all the absolute authority of death itself and uttered a single word, tone cold as ice and it carried throughout the room, although it seemed no louder than a whisper, his tone akin more to the hiss of an enraged, venomous serpent than that of a man.

"Explain!"

Irene felt no shame in the chill that ran up and down her spine at how menacing the leader of Organization sounded, it suited him far too well.

"Isely, Riful, and Luciela are indeed seeking that power, as predicted, however, there is something we never believed they would do. They formed an alliance between themselves, call it the "Abyss Trinity". Furthermore, with their ability to sense yoki auras blocked by the sheer potency of the one I was sent to locate, they're keeping tabs on our Warriors in the hopes that we'll lead them to the source of the yoki that caused such a shift in the balance of power."

The Elders all broke out into concerned whispers and mutters at the news. An alliance? Between all three Creatures of the Abyss?!

"How do you know this?!" One of them cried.

"Luciela was in Lautrec, yet Riful didn't challenge it. She even mentioned the alliance to me." Irene said, slightly embellishing the story, trying to keep them from learning about the boy that had unknowingly caused all this with his arrival.

"I see...so you believe that it would be safer to adopt a watch and wait approach until the Creatures of the Abyss allow lust for power and suspicion of betrayal to turn them back against one another rather than have us take action that may actually benefit the creatures by leading them to the prize both they and us are seeking. Once they are embattled among themselves, we resume our own search. That is what you propose, Number Two?" Rimuto said.

She nodded "Yes sir. I would also advise that should the unlikely event that any warrior should come across whatever is the cause of that yoki before the Creatures of the Abyss are once again feuding with one another, they proceed using covert operation tactics to avoid alerting our enemies. Have them all be as human as possible. Otherwise anyone traveling with our Warriors could be mistakenly targeted due to assumption on the Abyssal One's part."

That caused a sense of acceptance to wash over her as the Elders all nodded in agreement with that course of action.

"A good tactic. You are dismissed, Number Two." Rimuto said, causing her to abruptly spin on her heel and exit the chamber.

As soon as the sun hit her face, Irene let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. That had gone a tiny bit better than she'd hoped. Pile on bad news and people listened better...sad that was the case, but at least it worked.

Now to go back and get Naruto. She didn't like the idea of him being by himself...too much could go wrong.

With that thought, she made her way back to the town she'd left Naruto at with all due speed, yet it was still nearly dark by the time she got there.

Irene found Naruto in the inn, waiting for her like a puppy. Upon seeing her, he brightened and hugged her. She felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips almost without her realizing it...he was an affectionate one and wasn't afraid to let her know it. She shook her head, ridding herself of the budding smile. What was wrong with her? Watching him was just another job...something she had to do to because it was her duty. Like she said, she understood that there were some forces that were simply too dangerous to be allowed in anyone's hands, no matter who they were and that Naruto's power easily fell into that category...that was all.

She shouldn't get attached.

It would only end badly if she did. She couldn't let her skills dull by getting soft the way attachment could make her. She needed to be as cold and hard as the steel of her sword. Ruthlessness was a necessity in her line of work.

But looking at Naruto, she felt less like she should and more something else...something she couldn't remember.

What was it about him? Luciela had said his yoki power caused him to turn into nothing but an ignorant beast. Yet if that were the case, wouldn't he have also turned on her after the one known as the Failed Experiment of the South had fled? And the sheer sense of desperation he'd fought with to protect her with...

What was he? He'd been the trigger of such monumental events already. He seemed a smarter boy than one would assume once they got to know him. He seemed at least partly aware of that enough to know there was something going on. Yet for all his power, he was still a lost, lonely, easily-frightened child. An innocent. He needed a pillar and thus had seemed to imprint on her.

She recalled how she'd felt around him: protective enough to hide him and who he was from her superiors, angry whenever he tried cheating in his lessons, proud when he'd done so well when he'd fought her to stay by her side, even if she had been holding back...

Again, she knew she shouldn't get attached. That it would only end badly if she did. She couldn't let her skills dull by getting soft the way attachment could make her. She needed to be as cold and hard as the steel of her sword. Ruthlessness was a necessity in her line of work.

Why did she feel less like that now that she was looking at Naruto?

Just one more question Irene had about the whiskered child.

Where'd he come from and how had he obtained his yoki powers? Why had he been in that cave rather than with his family? A nasty though seemed to make her gut clench at that as a horrible possibility occurred to her, his family...didn't he have one?

Irene shoved these thoughts into the back of her mind as he released her and looked at her as though sensing her confusion.

"Irene," he asked, "anata wa daijōbudesu ka?"

Irene smiled lightly at the familiar question. Asking if she was alright...she understood none of the words except her name, but she had come to understand their meaning.

Irene walked over to the bar and spoke with the keeper there before depositing a bag of coins and a key was put into her hand. She jerked her head and Naruto followed her to the stairs at the back of the common room. The worn treads creaked under their feet as they climbed to a hallway on the second story. A single candle illuminated the dingy, wood-paneled corridor. Unlocking the door, she entered the room,Naruto at her heels before she shut and locked the door again.

As the last rays of the afternoon vanished, the pair decided to rest.

Tossing and turning, Irene scowled as she sat up and threw her uniform's shift on then took her sword and planted it into the floor so it stood up before sitting down with her back propped up against it, using it as a backrest.

"First sign I've been doing this job too long...Can't believe this is more comfortable that a bed..." she muttered to herself.

With that, she allowed her mind to fade into the realm of dreams. When she awoke the following morning, she was surprised to see the blanket of the bed draped around her and Naruto resting his head on her lap. Clearly he'd put it around her to try and make her more comfortable. She shook her head and almost let out a laugh. He was sweet, if nothing else.

Irene looked at him, yet again noticing the marks on each cheek that greatly resembled whiskers. After making sure he was still asleep, she leaned forward to get a better look at them. At first, she thought the whiskers were simply drawn on with face paint. Now that she was close enough to study them in detail, she was able to see the shallow grooves the lines made in his face. Maybe they were some kind of birthmark?

Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she gently pressed her hand against his right cheek and ran her fingers over the grooves of each mark. She found them to actually be very soft and kind of nice to touch underneath her fingers, which were hard with calluses from the uncountable times she wielded her sword. She was taken aback for a moment when the boy in her hand subconsciously nuzzled his cheek against her hand, seeking more comfort from her fingers' gentle touch. A small smile graced her lips as she resumed gently rubbing his cheek. She then took notice of his somewhat long, shaggy blond hair. It was pretty matted and messy, she wondered when the last time it had seen a brush was since she'd found him living in the wild. Slowly running her left hand through it, the texture of his hair was something she had never really felt before. It reminded her of a mixture between hair and fur. It, like everything else about the boy was odd, but not unpleasantly so.

Irene couldn't help but smirk a little bit when she heard the boy started to make a low rumbling noise in his chest that sounded awfully a lot like a purr. An uncharacteristic and mean-spirited idea began to form in her mind that she just had to try out. Stopping her ministrations on his cheek and scalp, she was delighted for some unknown reason when she heard what sounded like a small pitiful whimper from him. Was her touch really having that much of an effect on him?

She reapplied her ministrations of his cheeks and scalp. As she did so, she felt something like a spark of energy go through him and and she felt that something use the physical contact to enter her body and it started going through her memories, learning everything she knew about the land and it's regions, mannerisms, customs, history, and language, yet it spent a particularly strong level of attention to the ones involving Naruto in some way, such as her decision to keep his existence hidden from the Organization.

After it was done, she thought she sensed approval coming from whatever this mental probe was and it yanked her from her body.

* * *

...Ok, where was this place?

Irene walked around to see all the structures, homes, stores and many other things around here...wherever "here" was. How and why had she ended up here?

The place was clearly a sizable city. Meandering through the vacant streets leading further into the city, she couldn't help but be awed by the amount of foliage within the city and how well it and the city's architecture seemed to compliment each other; The innumerable trees, grasses, flowers, and bushes of the city's parks and forests seemed to blend in perfectly with the wooden houses, colorfully-painted shops, and tall poles that, for some reason, held rubber-coated ropes high above the streets of packed dirt and pavement, forming a colorful mosaic too beautiful for words to fully describe.

Still, it was kind of creepy...this big a place and yet there's not a single living soul. It should be filled with life but it seems devoid of any at all, not even a single rodent or insect...how empty this place was bothered her.

She stopped and turned to see the large mountain behind the city and saw multiple faces on it and the last one looked like Naruto almost.

She felt something looking at the mountain and ran to the base of it. Something wanted her to go there.

Stopping at it, she saw this city wasn't as completely deserted as she thought. There were two people, a man and woman, standing atop the flat roof of the circularly designed building that towered over most of the other of the other structures.

The male of the pair was a fairly tall, fair-skinned individual that strongly resembled Naruto in terms of physical appearance; both had bright, blue eyes and spiky, blond hair. The man also had jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face. In fact, Irene rubbed her eyes, certain she was looking at Naruto's future self, only without the whisker markings. His attire consisted of a blue body suit with two bands each on both of his sleeves, a leaf green flak jacket, blue headband that had a metal plate attached to it that had an odd symbol etched into the metal, and blue sandals like Naruto had worn originally. Over this was a short-sleeved long white coat of some kind over his normal attire, decorated by orange flames-like motifs on the edges, and closed on the front by a thin, orange rope.

As for the woman, she had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, violet eyes, fiery red hair with strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parts her hair to the left, keeping it out of her eyes. She wore an outfit consisting of a high-collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress. The blouse was white while the dress was green. She also wore a slate blue wristband on her left wrist and black sandals.

Irene stared at them as the two smiled at her as if they were all old friends and then when they opened their mouths to speak with her, her eyes widened at what they said before the scene faded to black.

* * *

As she awoke with a start, she saw Naruto staring at her with worry. As if not sure if she needed help but or if she was just sleeping in.

Irene stared at him as though she had never seen anything like him before, and then caught herself. She schooled her features and nodded to show she was alright before she stood and donned her sword and armor.

As they left town, Irene kept stealing glances at Naruto as she recalled her vision...she couldn't call it a dream. The whole thing seemed insane, but she couldn't stop thinking about it.

More than anything, she recalled the words the two people had spoken to her.

_"We entrust you with our son."_


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto was, Irene decided, much more comfortable and relaxing than having her back propped against her sword.

He was sitting in Irene's lap as she held onto him like he was a teddy bear. He'd fallen asleep not too long ago, her arms around him and his ear over her heart as he had listened to it as well as a lullaby she'd hummed to him. Relaxed to where he was asleep like the she was feeling comfortable enough with him there to fall asleep.

She'd stopped teaching him how to speak. Ever since that odd event where she was deemed trustworthy enough to become his guardian in full, he'd suddenly been able to fluently speak her language as easily as if he'd been doing it his entire life, so there was no real need for them. She

that vision she'd had of his biological parents had something to do with it. Whatever had pulled her to meet them, it had scanned her mind, after all.

Irene was secretly pleased however, to learn that was the extent of what had been transferred: language. She still got to use the rest of his lessons as a bonding shook her head.

How that happened, she had no idea, but there was no denying it had for her. Somehow, she just knew it had been real rather than some dream or illusion.

We entrust you with our son...part of her wondered what the two had been thinking. Her? Care for a child? The idea was crazy. She could provide nothing that he needed. A human would have given him a roof over his head and a proper bed at least. Yet...as she sat there in front of their campfire under the stars, her back against the flat of her sword, arms around Naruto and one hand running through the sleeping child's hair, the other part of her felt...content, with the fact that they had.

For so long now, all she'd ever known was the fear and admiration her skills and reputation generated...all she'd known were the weight of her sword and the scent of blood.

That was no way to live. She knew that. Yet what could she do? For most of her life, it was all that had ever defined her as a person.

It was, she supposed, along with wanting to leave some testament to her existence, where of her desire to surpass and dethrone Teresa and claim the Number One-ranking came from.

But now now...now the situation had changed.

She smiled at the young boy with her, yes...the situation had _definitely_ changed.

Here was someone that needed her...someone that depended on her. For the first time since becoming a hybrid, her life wasn't just her own.

It was an odd, yet comforting feeling.

She couldn't protect him forever, she knew that. And it put the taste of ashes in her mouth. Eventually she'd fall against an enemy, a warrior's life was a dangerous one, after all. And the idea of Naruto being left to fend for himself again made her blood boil and turn to bile in her veins.

She hoped that this alliance between the three Awakened, ex-Number Ones lasted as long as possible. Sure, she knew it was wrong to have such a wish, but as long as they were a unified front, they were priority. The Organization would deem their search for the Seraph...their hunt for Naruto...as being too risky unless they wanted the power she refused to tell them that Naruto held to fall into the hands of their enemies after the Organization itself led them to him.

Because of what she had told them to excuse his presence as well as well as what she'd suggested to her superiors about advising the Organization's Warriors to take up as human a level as possible as far as behavior and use things such as covert operations tactics until the Abyss Trinity disbanded, they'd leave him alone and wouldn't even spare him a glance. Assume he was part of the act. No reason for Rimuto or anyone else to suspect anything about Naruto.

As if roused by the thoughts he was the subject of, the boy's brilliant, electric sapphire blue eyes fluttered open and he looked up at her face.

"...Irene...?"

"Hmm?"

Naruto hesitated, something that caught her attention. Naruto nervous? Whatever he looked like he wanted to say must have been important. "What is it?"

"Irene...I was...I mean if it's alright...I was wondering...what I mean to say is..." he gulped and looked down, yet still spoke loudly and clearly,"Can I...Can I call you..."mom"?..." he asked then shut his eyes then winced and tensed up as if bracing himself for a blow.

Stunned beyond all belief, Irene raised his head so that their eyes met and she smiled kindly at him as her arms tightened around him and held him close, nuzzling her cheek against his own as her chin rested on his shoulder and in the crook of his neck.

"...I'd like that."

Naruto threw his arms around her neck and wept thick, fat, happy tear cascading down his face freely, an impossibly huge smile on his face and he felt like he could fly.

* * *

Teresa fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around Clare,

_'So I was the one she was comforting that day! She didn't cling to me because I saved her from that yoma, but because she knew we shared the same kind of pain. Everything she had was taken away from her, and she could sense that I had suffered in the same way. She sensed our kinship, even when I couldn't. She comforted me in a way that no one in the village would do for her. She gave me what she wanted so badly for herself Understanding...and unconditional love. The same love...that Clare has never known for herself.'_

Teresa fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around Clare, streams of water that she had forgotten she could do, running down her face. Suddenly finding her actions upon first meeting her abhorrent. _'I kicked this tiny girl over and over when all she wanted was to be held. __She taught me something I thought I'd never learn. That even silver eyes like these can still shed tears.'_

She'd heard the rumors that lad been floating around lately and that's when she realized something that she found bothered her all the more. _'To think, if it weren't for that being, whomever or whatever they are, arriving and Irene being sent to find them, I never would have met this wonderful little girl at all.'_

At the thought, she held Clare tighter.

_Seraph...thank you._

* * *

"...A child? One not even a Claymore?" Isely repeated. "Are you sure?"

Luciela nodded. "Do my injuries _look _like sword wounds?!"

Riful giggled. "Well this is interesting...and given that you mentioned our alliance to the current Number Two, then the Organization knows already."

"Since the Number Two was useless, they'd most likely have this child placed under the protection of the current Number One." Luciela said.

Isely paced, looking thoughtful at that, "The current Number One...that'd be Teresa of the Faint Smile."

At the mention of her name, all three of the Abyssal Ones shivered.

"Please...don't mention that one..." Riful said, rubbing her arms.

"I need to, we might have to fight both her and this so-called Seraph if we're to claim that power." Isely said.

Riful and Luciela shared a glance, it was impossible to tell which was paler.

"...The Seraph and The Warden?"

This would be tricky.

"We can't delay if that is the case...either we claim this Seraph's power or we kill them...either way, this means we need to go on the immediate offensive. And cut down any and all Claymore we encounter along the way!" Isely said, his power flaring and his eyes glowing an icy blue.

The other two nodded as they did the same, Luciela's eye shining from within and becoming amber while Riful's turned completely red.


	7. Chapter 7

**N/A: This is just a bridge chapter and it dose have a point for the later chapters in the story.**

* * *

Naruto bit into the apple that his new-found mother-_God! he loved being able to call Irene that!_-had gotten him to pick up. He hated vegetables and wouldn't eat them if he could help it, but fruit, on the other hand, was a different story.

Irene felt this was progress towards weaning her surrogate son off his "acquired taste" for yoma meat. She knew that he'd probably never fully get over it, but at least it could be lessened to some degree.

Couldn't have her charge eating the flesh of a yoma's corpse in front of people, now, could she?

Irene was brought out of her thoughts as she saw the seven-year-old blond boy tense up and seem to stare off into the distance with a sharp glare.

"Lot of malice coming from three people...guess that the three stooges are on the move."

The Abyss Trinity huh? She knew by now to trust what Naruto said he felt in regards to malice. The yoki-block was gradually weakening as he hadn't used his power for a week now. It was slight and gradual, but it was still happening.

While she was confident she could mislead the other two as long as he didn't use that red yoki, Luciela already knew what Naruto looked like. How could that be dealt with? If those three were on the move, she needed to figure that out. The sooner the better. But she was coming up blank as far as a solution to that short of killing her.

She couldn't take Luciela alone, that had already been proven. And even if she tried it, she'd have to fight both Riful and Isley at the same time as well while having her mortal combat rematch with the southern region's Abyssal One. And if she asked another Warrior for help, it would mean exposing Naruto to the Organization. And she'd already sworn off them being allowed to get their hooks into her little seraph, so that idea was no good. She had to do this herself.

Three-on-one against the three most deadly Awakened Beings to ever exist...strong as she was, Irene knew she stood no chance in that kind of situation, and if she died, the three of those beasts would get their hands on Naruto. And even considering that was completely unacceptable.

What was the answer to this problem? She NEEDED to find it!

Naruto turned to her, worried. He didn't like the idea of his mother in distress. His concern was clearly visible because Irene spared him a glance then chuckled and hugged him. "Don't worry, Naruto."

He hugged her back and Irene had to admit, she welcomed the sense of physical affection that Warriors were denied for being half-yoma.

"Don't say that. There's something wrong, I can tell. How can't I worry?" he looked up at her face imploringly, "What can I do to make mom happy again? I need to know. I can't be happy unless mom is."

Irene felt her eyes moisten and her heart melted as she redoubled how tightly she clung to him. He couldn't be happy unless she was? This sweet child...what had she done to deserve him?

"I just have a lot on my mind, is all." she told him, "I know and appreciate that you want to help, but I don't think you can. Still, it's very sweet of you, son." Irene smiled, she liked addressing him by that word.

Naruto gave a small smile, still troubled, but not wanting his concerns to upset Irene further. Still, he hated feeling useless like this, and he hated seeing his mother so unhappy. There had to be something-_anything_-that he could do to make things better for her.

But what? That was the problem.

One he intended to fix, all he needed was a solid direction he could take.

He looked up as he finished the apple and was brought out of his depressing thoughts as he heard something heavy being set into the soil and saw mom had planted her sword into the ground to use as a backrest. Looking up at the sky, Naruto noticed that the sky was changing rapidly to deep, velvety blue to cold and steely gray.

It was that late already?

Irene held out her arms to her son and he went over and snuggled up to his mother, both of them knowing they could keep going to the next town without stopping, Naruto was similar to a Warrior of the Organization, after all, and had the same level of endurance as she did, but the idea of what could happen to her baby as they went through a wilderness full of Yoma, wild creatures, and cutthroat humans in the dark wasn't something Irene was willing to risk.

Still burdened with his troubled thoughts of how he felt incapable of helping Irene, his mother, with her problems, Naruto forced himself to sleep.

After hours, just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon, Irene yawned. As a result of her occupation, she woke early. Moving to shake Naruto awake so that they could get a move on. But then she noticed the absence of her charge's mass leaning against her. Irene's eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet, looking around frantically.

NARUTO WAS GONE!

That couldn't be...he never left her side since she'd taken him in and became his mother, and with how he was living before she found him, she was aware he knew how dangerous it was to be by himself. No way he'd just get up and leave her in the middle of the night without a word. He would've let her know if it was to use the bathroom or something like that.

Unless...

DAMN IT! She'd forgotten what she'd learned about how he had a disorder where he'd still use weapons and fighting skills while still asleep! She'd been surprised to learn about it when she'd found out her boy was still up and training in the middle of the night. at first, she had merely assumed he had either gotten up early or couldn't sleep and had started training to work off some energy, but upon watching him, it was obvious he was moving far too differently, they were flawless. As if there had been a barrier between his level of skill and the full force of what he could be as a warrior and a fighter, but that barrier had been stripped away, showing his full potential and level of ability once he had fully realized it. When Irene tried to get his attention, she was ignored. That prompted her to investigate, seeing as Naruto NEVER ignored her.

When she had neared him with her sword, he attacked for a few minutes, shocking her so much that she actually dropped her sword, but as soon as the broadsword had hit the ground, he'd stopped attacking, and it allowed her to get a look at what was wrong with her son. Naruto's eyes were simply white; his normal ocean blues were gone. He had been unconscious!

It had given Irene an idea as a way to better see to his safety.

With his ability to somehow sense malice, and with how well his training in how to fight was going with his being a tactile learner added onto this, and her new discovery, Irene had been trying to somehow hone his subconscious mind to use that ability to sense malice, threat recognition, and muscle memory to ensure he was more aware of his surrounding through his senses than a regular person would be and, if need be, he could move and and even fight as if he were still wide awake while unconscious.

It had been slow going and she wasn't even sure if it was ever even working, but with all three Abyssal Ones and the Organization after her son, she felt it was worth it, she do anything and try anything for the sake of protecting Naruto from them. No matter how impossible it was or seemed.

But now that had bitten her on the ass!

She'd been successful in training his subconscious, but now it was making him go off in search of the nearest perceived threat! DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!

WHERE WAS HE?! HE COULD BE ANYWHERE! WAS HE ALL RIGHT?!

Irene felt her heart pounding and her breath came out in short, brief gasps as she started hyperventilating, even as she broke out into a ice-cold sweat ans she started shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't fight off the panic of the unknown.

Where was he?! Where was Naruto?! Where was her baby?!

Falling to her knees, her legs gave out and her hands dug into the ground as they balled themselves into fists and tears fell from her eyes.

She'd _FAILED!_

She was supposed to be his rock. His guardian. Mother.

And she'd failed! In her attempts to give him ways to protect himself, she'd damned him! She'd lost him!

Gripping hold of her emotions, Irene stood up, her face expressionless as a statue.

Irene was supposed to be made of tougher things. She would endure and seek him out to the ends of the earth and beyond if she had to until they were together again. Naruto wouldn't want his mother to break under this kind of pressure.

So she wouldn't.

If she had time to be paralyzed by terror and imagined evils like this, she had more than enough time to get up and find her boy.

And by God, that was what she was going to do.

She just prayed that he could stay out of trouble long enough for them to be reunited...

* * *

As dangerous as it was being by herself for the moment, she wasn't as worried as she could have been, knowing Teresa was somewhere close by, all she had to do was shout. And in addition, Clare, after the run-in with that bandit who had his hand cut off and later tracked down Teresa and attempted to rape her, now carried a short sword with her.

As she walked, she heard a sound that made her freeze coming from ahead of her.

Turning towards it, she saw that there was a person crouching over a pile of shattered bones, one being freshly broken from the fact that the person held the pieces in their hands. The bone being broken and smashed was the origin of the sound she'd heard. Ones that looked like they came from a human, but she couldn't be sure. Clare wasn't squeamish, but she decided it was best not to be seen. But as she backed away, keeping the person in her view, she accidentally stepped on a brittle piece of wood.

At the sound of the twig snapping the black-clad figure lunged at her, pulling out twin daggers that were held in a reverse grip in his hands, while Clare quickly yanked her own blade in front of her with both hands.

The weapons met with a clang that made her teeth rattle.

Who was this person? She couldn't see their face. They wore a plain black leather jerkin, leather gloves, black leather breeches, black traveling boots, a dark grey hooded cloak, and a black scarf around their face.

A bandit? Most likely. If it were a yoma, it would've transformed by now and eaten her.

Well, Clare wasn't as helpless as she was when that yoma had kept her as something to amuse itself with.

Clare had always been observant child, unusually observant all things considered and this nature had saved her more than once while growing up. After all, the world had plenty of dangers besides Yoma. Bandits, slavers, and wild animals had all been a real threat for a small family living mostly isolated from everyone else on a small farm. Growing up, Clare had more than once noticed a bandit or slaver and managed to escape before they could spot her.

Admittedly she was unable to notice everything, after all she was only a child, but when she did notice something it was important. It was her observant nature that saved her from the yoma wearing her brother's face, and kept her alive when another yoma took her as a 'pet', and it was why she had realized just how hurt and alone Teresa was.

And it was thanks to her being observant that she'd actually picked up on some of the ways Teresa fought with a sword, learning through observation.

She didn't know what it was, but the fact was that oddest was that the person seemed to be something strange...something off...about this person, but the odd thing was that she didn't know what.

The one Clare was facing suddenly stiffened and leapt back and away, just as a presence zoomed between them like a sudden gale of wind and Clare found herself in the welcoming grasp of a very familiar silver-eyed woman.

Tightening her grip on her daughter figure, Teresa glared murderously at the one she had been fighting. "Clare, are you all right?!"

"Yes." the young girl said before she was released and her guardian/second mother let her go and faced Clare's opponent herself.

"Good. Stay behind me."

The one Clare now felt pity for jerked suddenly and started mumbling incoherent sentences as they stretched their arms and rubbed their eyes as though waking, then froze as they caught sight of Teresa.

"You're a-!"

The voice was male, but that hardly mattered as he was interrupted when he registered the fact that the woman's sword was descending from high over head toward him.

Swearing, the cloaked person rolled to the side, avoiding the blade that buried itself in the ground and scrambled to his feet throwing a kick to her stomach as he did so. No sooner had he regained his feet and turned to face her, he was forced to duck under a slash at his head and jumped back, putting some distance between them. Landing with a skid, he raised his two dirk.

Brandishing his weapons, he eyed the woman, really not liking the odds he now faced. She was fast, her reflexes were top-notch and he could tell just by looking that she could take a hit: considering that his muscles were screaming, his breathing was labored. This was going to be an uphill battle all the way.

"You are skilled." The woman admitted, adjusting her sword slightly, then she suddenly disappeared from view with pseudo-motion. Eyes widening, he leaned back as the air stirred, the tip of the blade coming with an inch of his throat and then lifted a foot up to avoid the blade's sweep at his ankle. Rebalancing as it came hurtling back at his midsection; he kicked her hands hard forcing it back causing the woman to stumble from the sudden shift in momentum.

His opponent recovered however, pivoting around using the momentum to make another slash at his head. He brought his dirk up, blocking the blow even as the impact sent him skidding away with such force that he almost fell over from it. Recovering from that particular clash, he shifted his stance in preparation for the next attack wishing he could call the fight off – but he doubted he could talk this woman out of whatever she was doing.

The woman was suddenly gone in another blur of speed. Naruto pivoted and tried to stab her as she reappeared behind him, but she managed to twist aside. Under his facemask-like scarf, he grimaced, but pressed his attacks, shifting tactics so that he could stay in close and keep her from freely using her sword but she soon enough realized his plan and slammed a fist into his chest sending him flying.

Pain flared to new levels from the blow, but he ignored it for the moment and let his shoulders fall back so that his weight carried lower. A second later his hand touched the ground and using his momentum and his hands performed a series of back flips before landing in a low crouch. He blanched upon seeing the way his dirk had nearly been sliced in half from blocking her earlier attack.

"Look, I think maybe we got off on the wrong-" he started to say before he dodged to the side as she appeared before him, sword cleaving the ground apart yet again when it struck. Seeing an opening, he hurled one of his blades at her unprotected side, which he instantly regretted as she some how managed to bring her blade around in time to deflect his ruined weapon.

The dirk careened off at an angle, disappearing into the dark forest and left him with only one of his weapons.

"Oh shit." the black-wearing person said. Then his eyes widened as he noticed the familiar spike of energy, yet even as he registered it he noticed that the woman had disappeared before he could even notice. He moved out of instinct but not quite quick enough to avoid the attack completely, the blade slicing briefly into his leg before he managed to escape.

He didn't have a respite as the blade came at him in a blinding flurry of slashes and cuts, coming closer and closer to actually hitting him. Naruto's breath started coming out in short painful bursts as he dodged each attack, before ducking beneath a slash at his neck and planting a hand used it as a pivot point to sweep at her ankle. She jumped over the attempt, and he sprang away while tossing a handful of dirt at her face as he did so.

His injured leg tried to buckle from the shifting weight, and taking the brief moment of distraction as she wiped the dirt from her eyes, he tried to catch his breath, but much too soon, the woman cleared away the last of the dirt he had thrown, staring at him with silted, golden eyes.

"Ok, can we just-" he started once more, before she pulled her arm back and flung her sword at him with blinding speed. He rolled to the side and the next second, he was pinned to a tree by his neck, one of the woman's hands around his throat.

Sheesh! Who was this woman?! She was stronger than Irene!

Wait...stronger than mom? There was only one person that hadn't turned into a monster already that fit that description. At least, not as far as Naruto knew.

"...You're Teresa of the Faint Smile, right?" he asked.

The woman looked shocked, "How do you know my name?!"

The boy shrugged "Heard about you from mom. Talks about you a lot."

Mom?!

Teresa wasn't expecting that and her eyes reverted to silver and her pupils became rounded again. "Who are you?" she asked.

In answer, the one Teresa had pinned sheathed his dagger, then reached up and lowered their hood, exposing sun-bright blond hair that stuck up like the spines of a sea urchin and hung atop their head in loose spikes, before they pulled the scarf they wore down to expose lightly tan skin and a face with three whisker-resembling markings on each cheek to go with the blue eyes and blond hair.

"My name is Naruto. How do you do, Miss Teresa?" he said.

Clare looked at him. The person she'd been fighting was a boy her age?!

He looked around, as if hoping to spot something, not spotting it, he looked fearful, only to seem to realize something, then turned to Teresa.

"Say...you're a good sensory-type, right, Miss Teresa?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" the woman asked, tone unsure. She didn't know what to make of this development. A human. A human _kid_. She'd been fighting and about to kill a human kid.

Talk about close. If this boy, Naruto (what kind of a name was that, anyways?), hadn't caught her by surprise by pointed out he knew who she was, she would have lopped off his head! Talk about breaking the Organization's greatest taboo...and in front of Clare! The idea revolted Teresa like nothing else.

Naruto beamed "You can help me find mom then?!" he asked hopefully, eyes shining with utter joy.

Find his mother? Teresa winced-her becoming more expressive further proof of Clare's influence on her. She was going to hate telling him this.

"I'm sorry boy, but my sensing only works on yoma. I can't use it to track humans."

"So you can't find Irene?!" Naruto shouted, feeling the icy claws of panic that came with being lost and separated from family and not being able to locate them.

_**HELLO!**_ Teresa felt her jaw drop and she let him go. Did this kid just admit to referring to Irene as "mom"?! She felt stunned. Irene...the iceberg, her best friend...had taken in a kid?!

Granted that Teresa herself couldn't talk, seeing as she had Clare. But still...

Ho, it'd been awhile since she'd had any dirt to tease Irene over! Not since they were trainees! Now news like this practically fell into her lap!

Shooting Clare a quick glance, Teresa turned her attention to the black-wearing boy.

"Just to make sure we're talking about the same Irene, she's a warrior the same way I am, right? Resembles an elf? Pale skin, angled eyes, pointed ears, silver hair, sword too fast to see...any of that sound familiar?" Teresa asked, listing the traits that she had teased her best friend about by constantly calling her an elf back when they were younger. Ho, those were the days...it made Irene furious to be called things like "Madam Pointy-Ears"!...Then Irene had been taught to suppress her emotions for the sake of creating her Quicksword technique and now seemed so withdrawn and aloof that she seemed to have no more emotion than a marble statue.

Teresa missed being able to get her riled up.

Naruto nodded vigorously, an eager, beaming smile on his face, "Exactly! All of it!"

Teresa snickered. God must really like the direction she had started going with her life since taking Clare in. Only way to explain this. Had to be!

"Well...why didn't you tell me that in the first place? I can't track humans with my sensing, but Irene and I are both hybrids, I CAN track her because of that! All right, kid. You can come with us until we find Irene. But if you try anything funny, you'll regret it. Got it?" The silver-eyed woman said, to which he nodded.

Teresa set him down and moved off somewhere out of the two children's sight, looking like she was holding something back and was about to burst. Once she was far enough away, the two heard a long stream of loud, maniacal laughter.

Naruto and Clare shared a glance, Naruto had the sinking suspicion in his gut that he just set himself up for mom having a reason to punish him.

"So..." Naruto said uncertainly, "can you tell me your name?" he asked Teresa's companion, whom he guessed was to Teresa as he was to Irene.

She appeared thin and frail, had straight, light brown hair in a long "princess"-style, and was dressed in a brown skirt dress, brown armbands, and brown shoes. But he saw something in her that reminded him of the "Will of Fire" people back in Konoha had, Something in her eyes held a kind of strength to continue fighting against all odds, a frighteningly strong willpower and strength of character.

Somehow, Naruto found it suited her perfectly.

"My name's Clare." she said.

At that, Naruto had to stifle a laugh. Teresa and Clare? The twin goddesses? Seriously? "I see..." he said. "Well...hope nothing bad happened...don't know how I got here..."

Clare stared at him, dumbstruck. "You know you fight in your sleep, right?"

Naruto went wide-eyed about that "You're kidding right?" he asked.

Clare shook her head, "You attacked me while you were sleepwalking...sleep-fighting...whatever you want to call it."

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted, shocked. "Ho man!...I what?! You're not hurt are you?! I'm sorry! I just...last thing I remembered was falling asleep and...I'm so sorry!"

Clare graced him with a small smile. "Don't worry...you didn't hurt me. And even if you did, it wouldn't have been your fault. You didn't know what you were doing...besides, Teresa wouldn't have let me be hurt."

Naruto gulped and nodded, he knew from his time with his mother that those swords weren't for show or decoration. And if he was right about Teresa and Clare being the same as him and Rrene...he shivered, not liking where that thought was going.

He was brought out of his thoughts as his stomach let out a loud growl and he looked down at it, then scratched the back of his head sheepishly "Uh...I'll go get something for the three of us then..." he said, then walked off into the woods, Clare staring after him, then thought of something and when off her own way.

A few minutes later, Naruto arrived back at where Clare stood waiting, carrying a trio of rabbits in his hands.

With practiced movement, he used his remaining dirk to skin, gut, and clean the rabbits, and then-putting aside the hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers-buried the viscera so that the scent of the offal wouldn't attract any scavengers or yoma. Without salt, he could not properly season any sort of food, but he knew enough about flora to know which non-harmful plants at least released pleasant smells when he crushed them between his fingers, and those he rubbed over and packed into each of the carcasses.

Gathering thin, flat stones, he made a small, crude oven by stacking them on top of one another. Next, he dug a pit, filled it with wood, and lit a fire by drawing a peace of flint along the edge of his dirk to produce a spark. He tended the fire until he had a bed of coals that glowed cherry red. Cutting three wands of dogwood, he stripped the bark and seared the wood over the coals to burn off the bitter sap, then spitted the carcasses on the wands and suspended them between the stones of the makeshift oven. For the organs, the used the top of the stone oven after greasing it with fat for a makeshift frying pan.

He crouched over the meal for three, slowly turning the three wands so the meat cooked evenly.

"You can cook?" Clare asked.

Naruto shrugged, "Over a campfire, yeah. Other than that, bit too many rules for my taste. What I like best about making food over a campfire like this is as long as it's cooked all the way through but isn't charred to the point it makes eating tough, it works. Simple is best."

Clare nodded, realizing that his statement at the end encompassed more than food preparation, but that his saying simple was best was a general comment. One with which she agreed, honestly, why people thought that making things more complicated made them better was beyond her.

Clare giggled. Then held out a hand to him, presenting his other dagger to him, the one Teresa had deflected into the woods earlier.

Naruto brightened and smiled as he nodded in thanks, taking the blade from her and sheathing it.

Teresa returned as the food finished and sat down, looking at the blond boy whom was sitting next to Clare...a bit too closely for the adoptive mother's taste. Clearing her throat, she was rewarded with the pair jumped and scooted away from one another. Teresa fought back a snicker as the trio each picked a freshly-cooked rabbit Shish kebab and ate. Once the three were finished, the Number One decided to get down to business.

"If you don't mind my asking, why are traveling with Irene?" Teresa asked, turning to the whisker-faced boy.

At that, Naruto looked startled, "Ok...if you're their best, why haven't they told you anything?!" he said, then he muttered about how the Organization was sloppily run before he turned to Teresa and told her about what he knew of the situation.

To her credit, she only raised an eyebrow. She knew the balance of power was shifted when that yoki had shown up, but for the three Awakened Ones of the North, West, and South to form an alliance.

She had to confess that this "Seraph" character that Irene had been sent to track knew how to shake things up.

Well, she had wanted to see her old friend again for a while anyways, and returning her kid to her gave her an excellent excuse to do so. Besides, it had been a while since she'd seen her handler, Orsay, so she had been kept in the dark about the events like the formation of the Abyss Trinity, so she felt she owed it to him to get him back to Irene.

Clare gave her mother figure a glance and she knew Clare was of a similar mindset. They stood and Naruto followed their example. Shutting her eyes and concentrating for a moment and straining her senses against the (thankfully) weakening yoki shroud the Seraph had generated, Teresa smirked as she located a very familiar yoki signature and her eyes opened again, giving Naruto a small nod, to which, he beamed._  
_

"Let's go you two." she said and the three moved off to find Naruto's adoptive mother figure and Teresa's best friend.


	8. Chapter 8

Irene panted.

Fifty-one percent of her power...she'd jumped right to the fifty-one percent mark right from the outset of a fight against a single, normal yoma.

She grit her teeth at that, but she couldn't help it...she wanted things over with so she could go looking for her boy again as soon as possible. Even if it meant doing something as reckless as that! Who knew what kind of trouble Naruto was in right now?!

"You're getting reckless, Irene." the black-clad handler said disapprovingly.

"Take it up with the leaders of the Organization, they gave me a job and I can't afford to waste time. Especially with small-class yoma." she snapped.

The handler nodded with a small shrug at that. True enough. She was supposed to be locating the being locals were referring to "The Seraph", and the fact that the three Creatures of the Abyss were joined together as a unified front to capture the same target Irene was looking for meant she had to be hasty.

"I understand that. The situation is a risky one. And if the Creatures of the Abyss win this little race..."

Irene growled. She'd never let them get ahold of Naruto! Not ever!

Taking her growl to mean she got it, the man stopped talking. They both understood failure wasn't an option. He'd let this slide just this once.

Irene, however, had other concerns than the Organization. Where was her boy?!

She'd had this nasty foreboding in her gut for days now, it wasn't the Abyss Trinity, that much she was sure of simply because the land was still intact...it was worse!

Somehow, she just knew that Naruto had gotten involved in something Irene was going to absolutely dread.

* * *

Teresa had to confess that watching Naruto and Clare spar with a set of sticks wasn't all that bad a way to pass the time. She already knew her adoptive daughter was mimicking her sword style, at least just enough to have the basics down and considering she was fully human and thus, unable to sense yoki. The girl was a hawk. But it brought up Roxanne of the Love and Hate, or as she was known to the warriors, Roxanne the Mimic Murder, to mind.

That warrior had been a menace. A scheming, manipulative BITCH who was easily mesmerized by other, usually higher-ranked, warriors' techniques, at times seemingly to the point of obsession. She would try to befriend a warrior she admired and then take advantage of that friendship so that she could fully emulate her chosen warrior's skills.

However, as she grew stronger, she would come to hate both the copied fighting styles and their inventors, deeming them as being "ugly". She has also demonstrated apathy towards her fellow warriors. She expresses no feelings for them, evident in how she appeared to be completely indifferent about the death of Cassandra's friend and even smiling about it. Coincidentally, each of her "friends" would mysteriously die in an Awakened Being hunt soon after their techniques were mastered by Roxanne, but Roxanne never showed any signs of sadness. It was implied (and later confirmed after Roxanne's death) that she was directly involved in each of their deaths, as evidenced by the timings, her displaying a lack of sadness for any of them, and the nature of Cassandra's demise.

Roxanne had quite a few sadistic and sociopathic tendencies. While on an Awakened Being hunt, she simply watched as the being tortured and eventually killed one of her teammates, who happened to be Claymore Number Thirty-Five, a warrior who was a close friend to Cassandra the Dusteater at the time. After discovering the circumstances surrounding her friend's death and the fact that the Awakened Being was a weak one, Cassandra, in her grief, attacked an amused Roxanne, who killed her with a twisted grin on her face. Her reputation and volatile feelings towards her peers was the reasons why she was nicknamed "Roxanne of Love and Hate."

Because of that, the Organization's warriors didn't like being copied.

Still, Irene's boy was proving he knew his way around a fight himself. She'd been teaching him, that was for sure.

Naruto had shown unwavering determination, courage beyond belief, creativity to use even the most unusual tactics in the heat of battle, and when it came to pure battle instincts or improvising on the battlefield, Naruto was nothing short of a genius. Even Teresa, a Number One of the Organization, had never seen anyone with a body that remembered so quickly. After trying a technique just once he could improve considerably. As for his fighting style, whatever it really was, it was overwhelmingly offensive, defense other than dodging and blocking be damned. There wasn't much finesse to it. He'd attempt to hit you, if it failed he'd try it in another way from another angle, and again, and again until he finally teed off on you. It was so spastic, with no rhyme or reason for some of the things he did, but it all flowed. It was as if he had painstakingly broken down exactly what random moves would work for him and stitched them together to comprise his fighting style. In short, winging it until he found something that worked was pretty much the calling card of Naruto's entire fighting style, so he had no problems with that.

Naruto had no problems standing and trading back and forth in combat even when he'd take the worst of a fight (that was something Teresa would admit that didn't like). He wasn't afraid to try for something off the wall, like a kick that would not only allow him to get underneath a blow, but would also let him sit back on his hands and plant both of his feet with a kick that would throw his enemies off balance. And it worked because Naruto was so used to his own body mechanics and was so aware of how he tended to move that it didn't matter. Any mistake he made in his movements he could reflexively make up for if you tried to take the slight imperfection of his actions as an opening to attack. It wasn't being intentionally clumsy, because clumsy was far too harsh of a word to describe it. There was nothing inept or lumbering about anything that Naruto did. It just seemed that he moved with a pinch of calculated recklessness, constantly trying to stay loose and adaptable. This boy really believed that he could turn the tables on any foe in a heartbeat and was willing to put his body out there to do such. It caused him to be a tactical nightmare when you were fighting him. Naruto had proven to be notoriously durable. To so much as simply knock him out, you had to take that head of his out. No cumulative damage would do the job. There was no getting around that.

And most importantly beyond anything else though, she could tell from watching him: Naruto got it. He got that fighting just for the sake of getting into a fight and being the best wasn't enough. You would never be your best if that was your mindset. Your reason for improving and surviving harrowing battles had to go beyond the concept of just doing it because, otherwise your abilities would plateau.

You needed something beyond the desire to win for the sake of winning to truly be a powerful fighter. To have a reason to excel past simply being great, that was what separated the greats from the absolute best.

Teresa had forgotten that as some point. Then Clare had come along and given her a reason to remember.

"That's enough." she called and the two lowered their makeshift weapons, panting lightly and grinning at one another. Teresa fought down the urge to frown at how well Naruto and Clare seemed to be getting along. It was hard not to be disapproving, but at the same time, the two kids were just so much fun to tease.

Which one to do? Disapprove or heckle? It was starting to annoy her that she couldn't choose.

Clare drew his attention when she called him, "Naruto...I'm surprised that you were using that weird style you do like when you're utilizing every part of your daggers, the blade, the hilt and cross-guard, in attacking and defending the way you were this time."

Naruto looked at his female peer, "Why's that? The blade isn't the only part of a sword. Using every part of a weapon like that is a type of functional beauty. In the field, if a technique or tactic is beautiful, then its beautiful because it is useful and keeps the ones that are depending on them alive, right?" Naruto asked.

Teresa and Clare shared a glance, and nodded with a small shrug from each of them. Fair point.

Naruto looked to Teresa, whom rolled her eyes at him, "I know, I know...sheesh, would it kill you to wait? It isn't easy with traces of that massive yoki still lingering over the entire land, you know."

Naruto winced and smiled apologetically, "Sorry Teresa, but I want to get back to mom. Besides, you know what she's like, and I'm worried about her doing something crazy if she gets frantic looking for me." he said.

Teresa snickered. Good point, considering what Irene was like when the two of them were trainees. Boy was a smart kid...it was impossible to believe that Irene, who was so stoic and seemingly emotionless, was once as much of an overly-emotional hellon and Teresa's "partner in crime" back when they were still little kids and running off from training. And the pranks...God above, how could Teresa EVER forget _the pranks_...! Teresa and Irene used to joke that the Organizations superiors were actually glad they skipped training and ran off, that way they'd get eaten by yoma and the old prudes wouldn't have to deal with the utter mayhem the two raised daily like them doing so was the only way to ward off armageddon!

Clare tried to hide the way hearing that her friend wanted to go bothered her, she understood why he was so impatient to get back to this "Irene" woman, seeing as she'd be the same way if she were ever separated from Teresa (and truthfully, she was wondering what her surrogate mother's best friend growing up was like), but she had gotten used to the blond boy's presence quickly.

Seeing him go would be upsetting, but she didn't hold it against him.

Naruto frowned suddenly at something hidden from view, "You can come out any time now, by the way." he called in annoyance.

Teresa and Clare rolled their eyes. That damn bandit that had his hand cut off? Why wouldn't that guy learn?

"Ignore him..." Teresa said simply. But still...how could he sense presences like that? It was absolutely bizarre, especially since it wasn't just yoma he was able to pick up on. So what was it?

Just another odd thing about the boy.

He was a curiosity, she'd admit that. Small wonder why Irene would want this kid around, if only to figure him out. But Teresa had her suspicions, what she lacked was proof. Especially since that "Seraph shroud" as some of her comrades had taken to calling that veil of energy that had suddenly changed the rules of Warriors, Yoma, and Awakened Beings was starting to wain again and she was starting to get back her ability to sense yoki.

This whole "Seraph" business was going to make everyone insane, Teresa thought. What was more, it brought on a question: With one being that had so much power, it would be all too easy to do something big...something loud...something too public to ever be ignored. Why hadn't this Seraph done so before? If they were a Yoma, Awakened Being, or Abysmal One, there'd be no question he would do something along those lines, yet the one known as the six-winged angel had not.

Trying to figure these things out gave her a headache.

Naruto suddenly pulled out one of his dirk and looked a way past her into the direction that he seemed to have know where the presence was, "If you want, I could take care of it." he offered.

Teresa looked at him, shocked. "Do you...do you know what you're offering with that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Not all monsters feed off entrails, I've seen at least enough to know that much about the world. And those kinds of monsters are the ones you're forbidden to do anything about. But I can."

Ok...so he did know. That was less than reassuring.

Teresa had to wonder what his life was like before Irene had come across this kid if he was so aware of the grimmer side of the world. Just thinking about it made her feel sick. Still, she supposed that was part of why the boy was so impatient to get back to Irene...feeling safe in a world that would snuff out any life without pity or care. Teresa understood that well enough.

She sighed and stood, the two children looking at her a moment before they started to do the same until she waved them to stay where they were. With that, Teresa made her way in the direction Naruto had been staring. As soon as she was out of sight of the camp the trio had made, she reached up and gripped the hilt of her sword.

"Come on out, I don't have all day." she said, annoyed.

In response someone _did _come out of the woods around her, but what she found wasn't the one-handed bandit, but instead was a short man, the same height as Clare, who was covered by long, black, hooded cloak which he had up to cover a large portion of his head.

Orsay, her handler.

Teresa released her grip on her sword. "Heh...been a while since I've seen you." she grinned. "Thought you were something or someone else."

"Were you going to cut me down if I was? I'm still human, and you know the cardinal rule: that Warriors are forbidden to kill humans. Even on accident."

Teresa scoffed at that, "Well with the Seraph's energy still blocking the ability to sense yoki, I have to rely on which presences feel hostal. So given human nature, honest mistake if I do without knowing it. Not my fault that blasted Nephilim turned the system of how things work upside down when they showed up."

"Nephilim?"

Teresa shrugged. "According to the followers of the Good Book, Nephilim were an ancient and extinct race derived from both Angels and Demons. They were hunted by both forces of the afterlife, divine and damned alike, because heaven considered them to be devils that could draw power from Heaven, and the reverse was true for the underworld: angles that could drain the power from Hell. Because of that, the two polar opposite realms actually joined forces to try erasing them for one simple fact: They rewrote the rules by simply being there, much like this Seraph's arrival had shifted everything between the Organization's Warriors and the Yoma. Makes me feel that the name "Nephilim" fits better than the current title. Of course, I haven't MET the Seraph yet, so I can't be sure."

Orsay chuckled, "I see. Valid point." he looked in the direction of the clearing Naruto and Clare were at, "Picked up another one, I see."

Teresa snickered, "To be fair, the second one's looking for my best friend and asked for my help finding her."

Teresa could have imagined it, but she swore she saw her handler pale. Damn! Just the IDEA of Teresa and Irene meeting scared the Organization?! Ha! That was a laugh!

Orsay chewed his lower lip. He knew about how the Warriors were supposed to use covert operation tactics and have them all be as human as possible in behavior, so he couldn't say 'no' to that, but at the same time...

"...You do realize that will draw their attention, the top two warriors meeting like that." he said, trying to avoid the storm that would most likely happen if Teresa and Irene met and decided to relive the "good old days" when they were trainees.

Teresa frowned. Good point, even if he was just dodging a scenario the Organization never wanted to deal with again and have Teresa and Irene run amok at their expense.

Still, Teresa wanted to get Naruto back to his mother-figure. Wouldn't be right just to leave him, and then there was what would happen if the this Abyss Trinity she heard about got their hands on the kid, assuming her suspicions were correct. Speaking of...

Teresa scowled, "Are you suggesting that between Irene and me, we could lose in anything other than numbers? And mind telling me WHY the kid that was with Irene had to be the one to tell me about the Creatures of the Abyss making an alliance?"

The visible porting of Orsay's face bent and scrunched in a gimmance. Crap! He didn't expect having to answer that! So he did the next best thing...passed the buck. "Rimuto felt you would notice on your own."

Teresa scoffed. Then turned and spun on her heel and walked away. "Tell Irene I'll be seeing her as soon as I can." she called over her shoulder.

Orsay blinked. Did the warrior he was in charge of controlling and giving missions to just...brush him off? And it seemed that he'd gotten the current Number One upset with the highest-ranked man in the Organization.

Yeah...he was in trouble.

Turning away from her terror-frozen handler, Teresa went back to where Naruto and Clare were and found her trying to coax the blond boy into talking about where he was from. It was making him increasingly uncomfortable if his expression was anything to go by.

Why was that so difficult for him? Wait...stupid question, there was too much that could have happened: yoma, bandits, disease, famine...it could have been anything that he didn't want to remember.

Teresa shook her head. Things like that were why her job was necessary, thankless as it was.

The woman cleared her throat loudly, catching the kids' attention and they stood up. Time to go.

As they walked, Naruto and Clare kept stealing glances at one another until Teresa, grinning, decided to step in between them. The action caused Clare to pout and Teresa fought down an amused snicker. No way was she making it easy on these two!

She wasn't sure if she approved or not of this little crush they seemed to be developing, but the reactions she got for playing the "overprotective mama" role were fun either way. Teresa gave Naruto a glance, since she couldn't sense yoki until the Seraph's energy stopped clogging the ability to detect the energy signatures of anything relating to Yoma, Awakened Beings, her comrades-in-arms, and most importantly, the Abyss Trinity, she'd had to have him serve as a kind of yoma-bloodhound...she could sense it to a small degree, and as the supposed divine-being's energy started fading, it was getting better to do so, but it wasn't at the level Teresa liked, so the two had come to an understanding: Naruto would ferret out Yoma, and Teresa would focus on locating Irene's energy signature for him.

Naruto nodded and lead the way to a town in the mountains that Teresa recognized as Rokut, one of the most isolated places there was...isolated mountain town that no one ever went to, with only one way in or out, which meant that the villagers had no way of escape...a good spot for a hungry yoma. An ugly thought.

Teresa sighed and headed into it with the kids following.

After that, it was a quick matter of finding the Yoma, Teresa killing it, and moving on their way.

What surprised Naruto was that Teresa asked one of the couples in town to take Clare in. Then again, she wanted Clare to have a human life.

Naruto wanted to say goodbye to his friend, so he stayed, Teresa telling him she'd be waiting on the road.

As Teresa was walking away, trying to ignore the pain in her chest at the idea of leaving the girl who had come to mean so much to her, Teresa heard the sound of hoofbeats, a lot of them. And they were in a hurry.

Looking down at the low road, Teresa spotted a dust cloud heading for Rokut. With her senses being better than that of an ordinary human's, Teresa could easily see the riders, and her blood ran cold.

"Ho, no!"

It was those bandits that had one of their members lose a hand to Teresa, the ones that they'd met before Naruto had joined them!

Forsaking the path, Teresa ran directly down the side of the mountain. Going as fast as she could, the sheer transfer of kinetic energy made an impact crater from how fast she was going once she hit the ground running.

_'What was I thinking?!'_ she mentally demanded of herself, _'I should have know when I ran into bandits so deep in the wood! They've been after that town from the start!_ _A town tucked away in the middle of the mountains that no one ever goes to and where the villagers have no way to to escape! No one would ever know they were under attack But they knew there was a Yoma in the city, so they didn't lay their hands on it! But with that Yoma dead...!'_

Teresa was honestly horrified at that. She had done this! Without that yoma, the town was defenseless!

A sudden surge of yoki all but exploded from the town. Teresa winced as the deluge of energy-the very same energy that had changed everything-struck her, yet she didn't slow down. She wasn't sure who the hell the Seraph was, nor did she truly give a damn, but it looked like she might have an ally.

By the time she got to the village, it was already in flames. Screams mixing in with the harsh roaring crackle as Rokut was enveloped in them and sent smoke bellowing into the sky.

"Damnit! I'm too late! Clare..." Teresa said, her mind turning to the worst, "Clare!" She ran through the town to the square, her hand on her sword's hilt, but she didn't-couldn't-turn it on normal humans. No matter how much she wanted to. No matter how much she knew it was within her power to aid the innocent people here, the Organization had tied her hands! DAMN THEM!

Stopping in the square, the bandit's leader taunted her a bit before Teresa spotted something that made her blood freeze: the one-handed bandit she'd had to deal with before came out of an alley, dragging an unconscious young girl behind him by her long, light brown hair.

CLARE!

The bandit looked at Teresa with insanity gleaming in his eyes.

"Hey, so nice to see you. Did you forget something the last time you were here? Finders-keepers! But don't worry...I promise to take real good care of her. I mean, we're already such good friends, aren't we? My new pet...I love watching the veins in her neck when she screams and cries, she kept calling out 'Teresa, 'Teresa'..."

That was it! As she moved, the FORMER Number one, she decided, recalled Naruto's words: _Not all monsters feed off entrails, I've seen at least enough to know that much about the world. And those kinds of monsters are the ones you're forbidden to do anything about._

This was the result of that...so much death and suffering. And she was expected to just let it happen! To HELL with that damned useless taboo! She'd never really trusted the Organization or it's motives anyway! She'd enjoyed intimidating the townsfolk and made it sound as if the Organization was responsible for sending Yoma to the towns, because it was most likely true.

The now-completely handless thief looked at his new stump. "You hurt me, Witch. Now how am I supposed to cress your filthy body...?" he said before he fell into two pieces in a shower of blood as Teresa cradled Clare in one arm, her sword drawn with the other.

"Damn you, you rotten bastards. You are worse than any Yoma and you all deserve to die for what you've done! There will be no survivors, each of you dies tonight!" she said, but before she could move again, the bandit leader's throat exploded outward in a starburst of blood and Teresa just barely moved in time to avoid her head being implied by a very familiar weapon, before the owner of the dagger was suddenly standing back-to-back with her, gripping both his weapons.

Naruto!

What was shocking were that his dirk were glowing dangerously with malevolent rel aura, as if the blades of the daggers were on fire. The demonically-enhanced edge of the two blades sheared through armor, flesh and bone as easily as wet clay, and his already-shaggy blond hair was standing even more spikier than normal, he now sported what looked like claws on both his hands, his lips had turned jet black and his canines had lengthened and turned into fangs while his whisker-marks had grew to be more pronounced, widening and darkening until they resembled abysmal scars. His eyes had been the greatest change as, not only had his eye shape become more vulpine and, but his once soulful cerulean blue eyes had changed, becoming blood red with an animalistic black slit for the pupil.

As if that alone were not enough to make her jaw drop...glowing, spiked, golden chains made out of energy erupted from his body and seemed to seek out the objects of his wrath. Those who weren't implied were either strangled or had the flesh shredded off their bones by the chain's spikes.

So...he was able to create, summon, shape, manipulate and use any kind of chains and chain-like weapons, from nothing...or, more likely, by shaping the energy in his body and use them for binding or attacking as well as shaping and combining them as needed? From the looks of it, those chains could posses a variety of abilities and were very effective in both offensive and defensive purposes in combat.

It was a very versatile skill if applied properly, and from the level of proficiency he was displaying, he was good enough with them to where he could have them act as naturally as his limbs, if not easier.

The sight of the two "monsters" sent the rest of the bandits running.

As Naruto further lost himself to his power, his skin peeled away, and he seemed to explode from the inside out, his yoki a bloody obelisk that seemed as though it were thrust from the bowels of Hell like the tip of a bloody spear or sword blade, declaring war upon heaven.

What she locked eyes on, Teresa almost mistook at first. A small body covered in bloody red, pulsing energy. This was not a human being any longer, but it was all Naruto.

It was the most beautifully frightening thing she had ever seen. A being that clearly only had one purpose to exist: to destroy whatever stood in the path that required its presence in the first place.

It growled and it seemed that, even when he'd completely lost himself, Naruto knew enough about what he wanted to aim his new form in all its fury at. Rearing back on it's hind legs, the beast roared, the cry echoing off the mountains in a ghastly chorus of longing for the kill as Teresa raised her blade, both radiating death as the bandits ran, knowing they couldn't get far.

Between the two of them, in a matter of seconds, the cutthroats were nothing but red coloration on the stones beneath their feet.

Once they were dead, and she was cradling Clare's unconscious form again, Teresa nodded in approval.

The fox-like creature walked over and sniffed at Clare, before letting out a sound like it was pinning, then looked at Teresa with it's head tilted as if in question.

Teresa looked at the thing Naruto had become and instinctively reached for her blade. The feeling of the yoki he was giving off didn't feel any better close-up than it did at a distance when he first showed up and threw the Organization, Yoma, Awakened Beings and Abysmal Ones into chaos, but as she watched, the power retracted. She watched as his skin re-grew over his exposed muscle and his eyes focused on Teresa and Clare.

She stared. "So you really are the Seraph after all...Seems I'm not the only one who doesn't trust the Organization...not bad, Irene. See that Six-Wings here's pretty nasty when he wants to be. Nice skill with those chains he'd created. " Teresa said.

He locked eyes with the Number One and, when their eyes met, she had to stifle a gasp. Teresa didn't believe in psychic things, but as she looked at Naruto, his face seemed like it was like a mask, unnatural and lit up from behind by some power so that it was as if the veil of time was lifted. It was like seeing his future self gleaming out from behind his current face and made his current one seem false. The kind of man he was meant to become: a kind and courageous man who would put his life on the line to protect the people he cared about.

"Seraph...Naruto...why did you...you exposed...?" Teresa asked, but he held up a hand, panting as he did, forestalling her question.

"We all have things we not only refuse, but REJECT allowing to happen. For me, its letting anything happen to those I care for and those that need help, the power I have...the things I can do...I have them all for just that very reason. And if I become a demon, so be it. I will endure the persecution and exile. As long as those who matter to me are safe, the rest of the world can see me however it so chooses. The darkness can freely consume my flesh, my mind, my heart, my very soul if it so desires, but the one thing it cannot lay claim to is those I love, and for their sake, I'll become anything or face anything. Demon, Human, Angel, or God, I don't really care. Nor do I concern myself with if I must fight as a human or face my enemies as a beast." he murmured.

With his peace said, Naruto gasped as a final golden energy chain that had a blade on the end shot from his back and zoomed up towards a building and a piercing scream echoed over the town, mixing in with the roar of the flames.

"Orsay...!" Teresa said, horrified.

Her handler...! He'd seen...?!

The young boy pitched forward, and the now-to-be-labeled-rouge caught him so that she held Clare closer and Naruto rested as he leaned against the woman as well.

Looking around her, at the surviving townspeople of the raid, she knew she was in trouble. But looking at them, she saw gratitude rather than terror.

Teresa looked down at the one she owed her humanity to, the child in her lap.

She'd deal with the consequences when they came...until then...

Clare groaned and her eyes fluttered open to behold the sight of the silver-eyed woman. "Teresa..." the girl smiled, feeling the comfort of those who loved her.


	9. IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE

**ATTENTION PLEASE. I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY: I'LL BE STARTING A NEW JOB ON SUNDAY, JUNE 7TH AND IT'LL KEEP ME OFF-SITE MORE FROM NOW ON.**

**I HAVEN'T GIVEN UP ON MY STORIES, AND I NEVER WILL, BUT MY EMPLOYMENT TAKES PRIORITY. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME ABOUT THE WAIT FOR UPDATES FROM NOW ON AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT YOU'VE GIVEN ME! **


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